Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith (arts. 48-55)
Congregation for the Oriental Churches (arts. 56-61)
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
(arts. 62-70)
Congregation for the Causes of Saints (arts. 71-74)
Congregation for Bishops (arts. 75-84)
Pontifical Commission for Latin America (arts. 83-84)
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (arts. 85-92)
Congregation for the Clergy (arts. 93-104)
Pontifical Commission Preserving the Patrimony of Art and History
(arts. 99-104)
Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of
Apostolic Life (arts. 105-111)
Congregation of Seminaries and Educational Institutions (arts. 112-116)

Pontifical Council for the Laity (arts. 131-134)
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (arts. 135-138)
Pontifical Council for the Family (arts. 139-141)
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (arts. 142-144)
Pontifical Council Cor unum (arts. 145-148)
Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant
People (arts. 149-151)
Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers (arts.
152-153)
Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts (arts.
154-158)
Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue (arts. 159-162)
Pontifical Council for Dialogue with Non-Believers (arts. 163-165)
Pontifical Council for Culture (arts. 166-168)
Pontifical Council for Social Communications (arts. 169-170)

1. The Good Shepherd, the Lord Christ Jesus (cf. Jn
10: 11, 14), conferred on the bishops, the successors of the Apostles,
and in a singular way on the bishop of Rome, the successor of Peter, the
mission of making disciples in all nations and of preaching the Gospel
to every creature. And so the Church was established, the people of God,
and the task of its shepherds or pastors was indeed to be that service
"which is called very expressively in Sacred Scripture a diaconia
or ministry."

The main thrust of this service or diaconia is
for more and more communion or fellowship to be generated in the
whole body of the Church, and for this communion to thrive and produce
good results. As the insight of the Second Vatican Council has taught
us, we come, with the gentle prompting of the Holy Spirit, to see the
meaning of the mystery of the Church in the manifold patterns within
this communion: for the Spirit will guide "the Church in the way of
all truth (cf. Jn 16:13) and [unify] her in communion and in
the work of ministry, he bestows upon her varied hierarchic and
charismatic gifts [...]. Constantly he renews her and leads her to
perfect union with her Spouse." Wherefore, as the same Council
affirms, "fully incorporated into the Church are those who,
possessing the Spirit of Christ, accept all the means of salvation given
to the Church together with her entire organization, and who — by the
bonds constituted by the profession of faith, the sacraments,
ecclesiastical government, and communion — are joined in the visible
structure of the Church of Christ, who rules her through the Supreme
Pontiff and the bishops."

Not only has this notion of communion been explained
in the documents of the Second Vatican Council in general, especially in
the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, but it also received attention
from the Fathers attending the 1985 and 1987 General Assemblies of the
Synod of Bishops. Into this definition of the Church comes a convergence
of the actual mystery of the Church, the orders or constituent elements
of the messianic people of God, and the hierarchical constitution of the
Church itself. To describe it all in one broad expression, we take the
words of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium just mentioned
and say that "the Church, in Christ, is in the nature of sacrament
— a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity
among the whole of humankind." That is why this sacred communion
thrives in the whole Church of Christ, as our predecessor Paul VI so
well described it, "which lives and acts in the various Christian
communities, namely, in the particular Churches dispersed throughout the
whole world."

2. When one thinks about this communion, which is
the force, as it were, that glues the whole Church together, then the
hierarchical constitution of the Church unfolds and comes into effect.
It was endowed by the Lord himself with a primatial and collegial
nature at the same time when he constituted the apostles "in
the form of a college or permanent assembly, at the head of which he
placed Peter, chosen from amongst them." Here we are looking at
that special concept whereby the pastors of the Church share in the
threefold task of Christ — to teach, to sanctify, and to govern: and
just as the apostles acted with Peter, so do the bishops together with
the bishop of Rome. To use the words of the Second Vatican Council once
more: "In that way, then, with priests and deacons as helpers, the
bishops received the charge of the community, presiding in God’s stead
over the flock of which they are the shepherds in that they are teachers
of doctrine, ministers of sacred worship and holders of office in
government. Moreover, just as the office which the Lord confided to
Peter alone, as first of the apostles, destined to be transmitted to his
successors, is a permanent one, so also endures the office, which the
apostles received, of shepherding the Church, a charge destined to be
exercised without interruption by the sacred order of bishops." And
so it comes about that "this college" — the college of
bishops joined together with the bishop of Rome — "in so far as
it is composed of many members, is the expression of the
multifariousness and universality of the people of God; and of the unity
of the flock of Christ, in so far as it is assembled under one
head."

The power and authority of the bishops bears the mark
of diaconia or stewardship, fitting the example of Jesus Christ
himself who "came not to be served, but to serve and to give his
life as a ransom for many" (Mk 10:45). Therefore the power
that is found in the Church is to be understood as the power of being a
servant and is to be exercised in that way; before anything else it is
the authority of a shepherd.

This applies to each and every bishop in his own
particular Church; but all the more does it apply to the bishop of Rome,
whose Petrine ministry works for the good and benefit of the universal
Church. The Roman Church has charge over the "whole body of
charity" and so it is the servant of love. It is largely from this
principle that those great words of old have come — "The servant
of the servants of God" —, by which Peter’s successor is known
and defined.

That is why the Roman Pontiff has also taken pains to
deal carefully with the business of particular Churches, referred to him
by the bishops or in some other way come to his attention, in order to
encourage his brothers in the faith (cf. Lk 22:32), by means
of this wider experience and by virtue of his office as Vicar of Christ
and pastor of the whole Church. For he was convinced that the reciprocal
communion between the bishop of Rome and the bishops throughout the
world, bonded in unity, charity, and peace, brought the greatest
advantage in promoting and defending the unity of faith and discipline
in the whole Church.

3. In the light of the foregoing, it is
understood that the diaconia peculiar to Peter and his successors
is necessarily related to the diaconia of the other apostles and
their successors, whose sole purpose is to build up the Church in this
world.

From ancient times, this essential and interdependent
relation of the Petrine ministry with the task and ministry of the other
apostles has demanded something of a visible sign, not just by way of a
symbol but something existing in reality, and it must still demand it.
Deeply conscious of the burden of apostolic toil, our predecessors have
given clear and thoughtful expression to this need, as we see, for
example, in the words of Innocent III who wrote to the bishops and
prelates of France in 1198 when he was sending a legate to them:
"Although the Lord has given us the fullness of power in the
Church, a power that makes us owe something to all Christians, still we
cannot stretch the limits of human nature. Since we cannot deal
personally with every single concern — the law of human condition does
not suffer it — we are sometimes constrained to use certain brothers
of ours as extensions of our own body, to take care of things we would
rather deal with in person if the convenience of the Church allowed
it."

This gives some insight into the nature of that
institution that Peter’s successor has used in exercising his mission
for the good of the universal Church, and some understanding of the
procedures by which the institution itself has had to carry out its
task: we mean the Roman Curia, which has worked in the service of the
Petrine ministry from ancient times.

For the Roman Curia came into existence for this
purpose, that the fruitful communion we mentioned might be strengthened
and make ever more bountiful progress, rendering more effective the task
of pastor of the Church which Christ entrusted to Peter and his
successors, a task that has been growing and expanding from day to day.
Our predecessor Sixtus V, in the Apostolic Constitution Immensa
æterni Dei, admitted as much: "The Roman Pontiff, whom Christ
the Lord constituted as visible head of his body, the Church, and
appointed for the care of all the Churches, calls and rallies unto
himself many collaborators for this immense responsibility [...]; so
that he, the holder of the key of all this power, may share the huge
mass of business and responsibilities among them — i.e., the cardinals
— and the other authorities of the Roman Curia, and by God’s helping
grace avoid breaking under the strain."

4. Right from the most ancient times, as a matter
of fact, if we may sketch out a few lines of history, the Roman
Pontiffs, in the course of their service directed to the welfare of the
whole Church, have engaged the help of institutions or individual men
selected from that Church of Rome which our predecessor Gregory
the Great has called the Church of the Blessed Apostle Peter.

At first they used the services of priests or deacons
belonging to the Church of Rome to function as legates, to be sent on
various missions, or to represent the bishops of Rome at ecumenical
councils.

When matters of particular importance were to be dealt
with, the bishops of Rome called on the help of Roman synods or councils
to which they summoned bishops working in the ecclesiastical province of
Rome. These councils not only dealt with questions pertaining to
doctrine and the magisterium, but also functioned like tribunals,
judging cases of bishops referred to the Roman Pontiff.

From the time when the cardinals began to take on a
special importance in the Roman Church, especially in the election of
the Pope — a function reserved to them from 1059 —, the Roman
Pontiffs made more and more use of their services, with the result that
the Roman synods and councils gradually lost their importance until they
ceased entirely.

So it came about that, especially after the thirteenth
century, the Supreme Pontiff carried out all the business of the Church
together with the cardinals gathered in consistory. Thus temporary
instruments, the councils or synods of Rome, were replaced by another
instrument, a permanent one, always available to the Pope.

It was our predecessor Sixtus V who gave the
Roman Curia its formal organization through the above-quoted Apostolic
Constitution Immensa æterni Dei, on 22 January 1588, the 1587th
year from the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He set up fifteen
dicasteries, so that the single College of Cardinals would be replaced
by several colleges consisting of certain cardinals whose authority
would be confined to a clearly defined field and to a definite subject
matter. In this way, the Supreme Pontiffs could enjoy maximum benefit
from these collegial counsels. Consequently, the consistory’s own
original role and importance were greatly diminished.

As the centuries passed and historical outlooks and
world conditions were transformed, certain changes and refinements were
brought in, especially when the commissions of cardinals were set up in
the nineteenth century to give the Pope assistance beyond that of the
other dicasteries of the Roman Curia. Then on 29 June 1908, our
predecessor Saint Pius X promulgated the Apostolic Constitution Sapienti
consilio, in which, referring to the plan of collecting the laws of
the Church into a Code of Canon Law, he wrote: "It has
seemed most fitting to start from the Roman Curia so that, structured in
a suitable way that everyone can understand, the Curia may more easily
and effectively lend its help to the Roman Pontiff and the Church."
Here are the principal effects of that reform: the Sacred Roman Rota,
which had ceased to function in 1870, was reestablished to deal with
judicial cases, while the Congregations lost their judicial competence
and became purely administrative organs. The principle was also
established whereby the Congregations would enjoy their own rights,
deferring to nobody else, so that each individual matter was to be dealt
with by its own dicastery, and not by several at the same time.

This reform by Pius X, later confirmed and completed
in the Code of Canon Law promulgated in 1917 by our predecessor
Benedict XV, remained practically unchanged until 1967, not long after
the Second Vatican Council in which the Church delved more deeply into
the mystery of its own being and gained a more lively vision of its
mission.

5. This growing self-awareness of the Church was
bound of itself, and in keeping with our times, to produce a certain
updating of the Roman Curia. While the Fathers of the Council
acknowledged that the Curia had hitherto rendered outstanding assistance
to the Roman Pontiff and the pastors of the Church, at the same time
they expressed the desire that the dicasteries of the Curia should
undergo a reorganization better suited to the needs of the times and of
different regions and rites. Our predecessor Paul VI quickly complied
with the wishes of the Council and put into effect the reorganization of
the Curia with the promulgation of the Apostolic Constitution Regimini
Ecclesiæ universæ on 15 August 1967.

Through this Constitution, Paul VI laid down more
detailed specifications for the structure, competence, and procedures of
the already existing dicasteries, and established new ones to support
specific pastoral initiatives, while the other dicasteries would carry
on their work of jurisdiction or governance. The composition of the
Curia came to reflect more clearly the multiform image of the universal
Church. Among other things, the Curia coopted diocesan bishops as
members and at the same time saw to the internal coordination of the
dicasteries by periodic meetings of the cardinals who presided over
them, to pool ideas and consider common problems. To provide better
protection of the principal rights of the faithful, the Second Section
was created in the Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.

Fully aware that the reform of such ancient
institutions needed more careful study, Paul VI ordered the new
system to be reexamined more deeply five years after the promulgation of
the Constitution, and for a new look to be taken at the question whether
it really conformed to the demands of the Second Vatican Council and
answered the needs of the Christian people and civil society. As far as
necessary, it should be recast in an even more suitable form. To carry
out this task, a special group of prelates was set up, chaired by a
cardinal, and this Commission worked hard at the project, up to the
death of that Pontiff.

6. When by the inscrutable design of Providence
we were called to the task of being the shepherd of the universal
Church, from the very beginning of our pontificate we took steps not
only to seek advice from the dicasteries on this grave matter, but also
to ask the opinion of the whole College of Cardinals. These cardinals,
twice gathered in general consistory, addressed the question and gave
their advice on the ways and means to be followed in the organization of
the Roman Curia. It was necessary to consult the cardinals first in this
important matter, for they are joined to the ministry of the bishop of
Rome by a close and most special bond and they "are also available
to [him], either acting collegially, when they are summoned together to
deal with questions of major importance, or acting individually, that
is, in the offices which they hold in assisting [him] especially in the
daily care of the universal Church."

A very broad consultation, as we mentioned above, was
again carried out, as was only fitting, among the dicasteries of the
Roman Curia. The result of this general consultation was the "Draft
of a special law concerning the Roman Curia," worked out over close
to two years by a commission of prelates under the chairmanship of a
cardinal. This draft was examined by the individual cardinals, the
patriarchs of the Oriental Churches, the conferences of bishops through
their presidents, the dicasteries of the Roman Curia, and was discussed
at the plenary meeting of cardinals in 1985. As to the conferences of
bishops, it was essential that we be thoroughly briefed about their true
general feeling on the needs of the particular Churches and what they
wanted and expected in this regard from the Roman Curia. In gaining a
clear awareness of all this, we had strong and most timely help from the
1985 extraordinary Synod of Bishops, as we have mentioned above.

Then, taking into account the observations and
suggestions that had been gathered in the course of these extensive
consultations, and bearing in mind the considered judgement of certain
private individuals, a commission of cardinals, which had been set up
for this express purpose, prepared a particular law for the Roman Curia
in harmony with the new Code of Canon Law.

It is this particular law that we wish to promulgate
by means of this Apostolic Constitution, at the end of the fourth
centenary of the afore-mentioned Apostolic Constitution Immensa æterni
Dei of Sixtus V, eighty years after the Apostolic Constitution Sapienti
consilio of Saint Pius X, and scarcely twenty years after the coming
into force of the Apostolic Constitution of Paul VI Regimini Ecclesiæ
universæ, with which our own is closely linked, since both in some
way derive from the Second Vatican Council and both originate from the
same inspiration and intent.

7. In harmony with the Second Vatican Council,
this inspiration and intent establish and express the steadfast activity
of the renewed Curia, as in these words of the Council: "In
exercising his supreme, full and immediate authority over the universal
Church, the Roman Pontiff employs the various departments of the Roman
Curia, which act in his name and by his authority for the good of the
Churches and in service of the sacred pastors."

Consequently, it is evident that the function of the
Roman Curia, though not belonging to the essential constitution of the
Church willed by God, has nevertheless a truly ecclesial character
because it draws its existence and competence from the pastor of the
universal Church. For the Curia exists and operates only insofar as it
has a relation to the Petrine ministry and is based on it. But just as
the ministry of Peter as the "servant of the servants of God"
is exercised in relationship with both the whole Church and the bishops
of the entire Church, similarly the Roman Curia, as the servant of
Peter’s successor, looks only to help the whole Church and its
bishops.

This clearly shows that the principal characteristic
of each and every dicastery of the Roman Curia is that of being ministerial,
as the already-quoted words of the Decree Christus Dominus
declare and especially these: "The Roman Pontiff employs the
various departments of theRoman Curia." These words
clearly show the Curia’s instrumental nature, described as a kind of
agent in the hands of the Pontiff, with the result that it is endowed
with no force and no power apart from what it receives from the same
Supreme Pastor. Paul VI himself, in 1963, two years before he
promulgated the Decree Christus Dominus, defined the Roman Curia
"as an instrument of immediate adhesion and perfect
obedience," an instrument the Pope uses to fulfill his universal
mission. This notion is taken up throughout the Apostolic Constitution Regimini
Ecclesiæ universæ.

This instrumental and ministerial characteristic seems
indeed to define most appropriately the nature and role of this worthy
and venerable institution. Its nature and role consist entirely in that
the more exactly and loyally the institution strives to dedicate itself
to the will of the Supreme Pontiff, the more valuable and effective is
the help it gives him.

8. Beyond this ministerial character, the Second
Vatican Council further highlighted what we may call the vicarious
character of the Roman Curia, because, as we have already said, it
does not operate by its own right or on its own initiative. It receives
its power from the Roman Pontiff and exercises it within its own
essential and innate dependence on the Pontiff. It is of the nature of
this power that it always joins its own action to the will of the one
from whom the power springs. It must display a faithful and harmonious
interpretation of his will and manifest, as it were, an identity with
that will, for the good of the Churches and service to the bishops. From
this character the Roman Curia draws its energy and strength, and in it
too finds the boundaries of its duties and its code of behaviour.

The fullness of this power resides in the head, in the
very person of the Vicar of Christ, who imparts it to the dicasteries of
the Curia according to the competence and scope of each one. Since, as
we said earlier, the Petrine function of the Roman Pontiff by its very
nature relates to the office of the college of his brother bishops and
aims at building up and making firm and expanding the whole Church as
well as each and every particular Church, this same diaconia of
the Curia, which he uses in carrying out his own personal office,
necessarily relates in the same way to the personal office of the
bishops, whether as members of the college of bishops or as pastors of
the particular Churches.

For this reason, not only is the Roman Curia far from
being a barrier or screen blocking personal communications and
dealings between bishops and the Roman Pontiff, or restricting them with
conditions, but, on the contrary, it is itself the facilitator for
communion and the sharing of concerns, and must be ever more so.

9. By reason of its diaconia connected
with the Petrine ministry, one concludes, on the one hand, that the
Roman Curia is closely bound to the bishops of the whole world, and, on
the other, that those pastors and their Churches are the first and
principal beneficiaries of the work of the dicasteries. This is proved
even by the composition of the Curia.

For the Roman Curia is composed of nearly all the
cardinals who, by definition, belong to the Roman Church, and they
closely assist the Supreme Pontiff in governing the universal Church.
When important matters are to be dealt with, they are all called
together into regular or special consistories. So they come to have a
strong awareness of the needs of all of God’s people, and they labour
for the good of the whole Church.

In addition to this, most of the heads of the
individual dicasteries have the character and grace of the episcopate,
pertaining to the one College of Bishops, and so are inspired by the
same solicitude for the whole Church as are all bishops in hierarchical
communion with their head, the bishop of Rome.

Furthermore, as some diocesan bishops are coopted onto
the dicasteries as members and are "better able to inform the
Supreme Pontiff on the thinking, the hopes and the needs of all the
Churches," so the collegial spirit between the bishops and their
head works through the Roman Curia and finds concrete
application, and this is extended to the whole Mystical Body which
"is a corporate body of Churches."

This collegial spirit is also fostered between the
various dicasteries. All the cardinals in charge of dicasteries, or
their representatives, when specific questions are to be addressed, meet
periodically in order to brief one another on the more important matters
and provide mutual assistance in finding solutions, thus providing unity
of thought and action in the Roman Curia.

Apart from these bishops, the business of the
dicasteries employs a number of collaborators who are of value and
service to the Petrine ministry by work that is neither light nor easy
and is often obscure.

The Roman Curia calls into its service diocesan
priests from all over the world, who by their sharing in the ministerial
priesthood are closely united with the bishops, male religious, most of
whom are priests, and female religious, all of whom in their various
ways lead their lives according to the evangelical counsels, furthering
the good of the Church, and bearing special witness for Christ before
the world, and lay men and women who by virtue of baptism and
confirmation are fulfilling their own apostolic role. By this coalition
of many forces, all ranks within the Church join in the ministry of the
Supreme Pontiff and more effectively help him by carrying out the
pastoral work of the Roman Curia. This kind of service by all ranks in
the Church clearly has no equal in civil society and their labour is
given with the intent of truly serving and of following and imitating
the diaconia of Christ himself.

10. From this comes to light that the ministry of
the Roman Curia is strongly imbued with a certain note of collegiality,
even if the Curia itself is not to be compared to any kind of college.
This is true whether the Curia be considered in itself or in its
relations with the bishops of the whole Church, or because of its
purposes and the corresponding spirit of charity in which that ministry
has to be conducted. This collegiality enables it to work for the
college of bishops and equips it with suitable means for doing so. Even
more, it expresses the solicitude that the bishops have for the whole
Church, inasmuch as bishops share this kind of care and zeal "with
Peter and under Peter."

This comes out most strikingly and takes on a symbolic
force when, as we have already said above, the bishops are called to
collaborate in the individual dicasteries. Moreover, each and every
bishop still has the inviolable right and duty to approach the successor
of Saint Peter, especially by means of the visits ad limina
Apostolorum.

These visits have a special meaning all of their own,
in keeping with the ecclesiological and pastoral principles explained
above. Indeed, they are first of all an opportunity of the greatest
importance, and they constitute, as it were, the centre of the highest
ministry committed to the Supreme Pontiff. For then the pastor of the
universal Church talks and communicates with the pastors of the
particular Churches, who have come to him in order to see Cephas (cf. Gal
1:18), to discuss with him the problems of their dioceses, face to face
and in private, and so to share with him the solicitude for all the
Churches (cf. 2 Cor 11:28). For these reasons, communion and
unity in the innermost life of the Church is fostered to the highest
degree through the ad limina visits.

These visits also allow the bishops a frequent and
convenient way to contact the appropriate dicasteries of the Roman
Curia, pondering and exploring plans concerning doctrine and pastoral
action, apostolic initiatives, and any difficulties obstructing their
mission to work for the eternal salvation of the people committed to
them.

11. Thus since the zealous activity of the Roman
Curia, united to the Petrine ministry and based on it, is dedicated to
the good both of the whole Church and the particular Churches, the Curia
is in the first place being called on to fulfill that ministry of
unity which has been entrusted in a singular way to the Roman
Pontiff insofar as he has been set up by God’s will as the permanent
and visible foundation of the Church. Hence unity in the Church is a
precious treasure to be preserved, defended, protected, and promoted, to
be for ever exalted with the devoted cooperation of all, and most indeed
by those who each in their turn are the visible source and foundation
of unity in their own particular Churches.

Therefore the cooperation which the Roman Curia brings
to the Supreme Pontiff is rooted in this ministry of unity. This unity
is in the first place the unity of faith, governed and
constituted by the sacred deposit of which Peter’s successor is the
chief guardian and protector and through which indeed he receives his
highest responsibility, that of strengthening his brothers. The unity is
likewise the unity of discipline, the general discipline of the
Church, which constitutes a system of norms and patterns of behaviour,
gives shapes to the fundamental structure of the Church, safeguards the
means of salvation and their correct administration, together with the
ordered structure of the people of God.

Church government safeguards this unity and cares for
it at all times. So far from suffering harm from the differences of life
and behaviour among various persons and cultures, what with the immense
variety of gifts poured out by the Holy Spirit, this same unity actually
grows richer year by year, so long as there are no isolationist or
centripetal attempts and so long as everything is brought together into
the higher structure of the one Church. Our predecessor John Paul I
brought this principle to mind quite admirably when he addressed the
cardinals about the agencies of the Roman Curia: "[They] provide
the Vicar of Christ with the concrete means of giving the apostolic
service that he owes the entire Church. Consequently, they guarantee an
organic articulation of legitimate autonomies, while maintaining an
indispensable respect for that unity of discipline and faith for which
Christ prayed on the very eve of his passion."

And so it is that the highest ministry of unity in the
universal Church has much respect for lawful customs, for the mores of
peoples and for that authority which belongs by divine right to the
pastors of the particular Churches. Clearly however, whenever serious
reasons demand it, the Roman Pontiff cannot fail to intervene in order
to protect unity in faith, in charity, or in discipline.

12. Consequently, since the mission of the Roman
Curia is ecclesial, it claims the cooperation of the whole Church to
which it is directed. For no one in the Church is cut off from others
and each one indeed makes up the one and the same body with all others.

This kind of cooperation is carried out through that
communion we spoke of at the beginning, namely of life, charity, and
truth, for which the messianic people is set up by Christ Our Lord,
taken up by Christ as an instrument of redemption, and sent out to the
whole world as the light of the world and the salt of the earth.
Therefore, just as it is the duty of the Roman Curia to communicate with
all the Churches, so the pastors of the particular Churches, governing
these Churches "as vicars and legates of Christ,"must take
steps to communicate with the Roman Curia, so that, dealing thus with
each other in all trust, they and the successor of Peter may come to be
bound together ever so strongly.

This mutual communication between the centre of the
Church and the periphery does not enlarge the scope of anyone’s
authority but promotes communion in the highest degree, in the
manner of a living body that is constituted and activated precisely by
the interplay of all its members. This was well expressed by our
predecessor Paul VI: "It is obvious, in fact, that along with the
movement toward the centre and heart of the Church, there must be
another corresponding movement, spreading from the centre to the
periphery and carrying, so to speak, to each and all of the local
Churches, to each and all of the pastors and the faithful, the presence
and testimony of that treasure of truth and grace of which Christ has
made Us the partaker, depository and dispenser."

All of this means that the ministry of salvation
offers more effectively to this one and same people of God, a ministry,
we repeat, which before anything else demands mutual help between the
pastors of the particular Churches and the pastor of the whole Church,
so that all may bring their efforts together and strive to fulfill that
supreme law which is the salvation of souls.

History shows that when the Roman Pontiffs established
the Roman Curia and adapted it to new conditions in the Church and in
the world, they intended nothing other than to work all the better for
this salvation of souls. With full justification did Paul VI visualise
the Roman Curia as another cenacle or upper room of Jerusalem totally
dedicated to the Church. We ourselves have proclaimed to all who work
there that the only possible code of action is to set the norm for the
Church and to deliver eager service to the Church. Indeed, in this new
legislation on the Roman Curia it has been our will to insist that the
dicasteries should approach all questions "by a pastoral route and
with a pastoral sense of judgement, aiming at justice and the good of
the Church and above all at the salvation of souls."

13. Now as we are about to promulgate this
Apostolic Constitution, laying down the new physionomy of the Roman
Curia, we wish to bring together the ideas and intentions that have
guided us.

First of all we wanted the image and features of this
Curia to respond to the demands of our time, bearing in mind the changes
that have been made by us or our predecessor Paul VI after the
publication of the Apostolic Constitution Regimini Ecclesiæ universæ.

Then it was our duty to fulfill and complete that
renewal of the laws of the Church which was brought in by the
publication of the new Code of Canon Law or which is to be
brought into effect by the revision of the Oriental canonical
legislation.

Then we had in mind that the traditional dicasteries
and organs of the Roman Curia be made more suitable for the purposes
they were meant for, that is, their share in governance, jurisdiction,
and administration. For this reason, their areas of competence have been
distributed more aptly among them and more distinctly delineated.

Then with an eye to what experience has taught in
recent years and to the never ending demands of Church society, we
reexamined the juridical form and raison d’être of existence of those
organs which are rightly called "postconciliar," changing on
occasion their shape and organization. We did this in order to make the
work of those institutions more and more useful and beneficial, that is,
supporting special pastoral activity and research in the Church which,
at an ever accelerating pace, are filling pastors with concern and which
with the same urgency demand timely and well thought out answers.

Finally, new and more stable measures have been
devised to promote mutual cooperation between dicasteries, so that their
manner of working may intrinsically bear the stamp of unity.

In a word, our whole steadfast approach has been to
make sure that the structure and working methods of the Roman Curia
increasingly correspond to the ecclesiology spelled out by the Second
Vatican Council, be ever more clearly suitable for achieving the
pastoral purposes of its own constitution, and more and more fit to meet
the needs of Church and civil society.

It is indeed our conviction that now, at the beginning
of the third millennium after the birth of Christ, the zeal of the Roman
Curia in no small measure contributes to the Church’s fidelity to the
mystery of her origin, since the Holy Spirit keeps her ever young by the
power of the Gospel.

14. Having given thought to all these matters
with the help of expert advisors, sustained by the wise counsel and
collegial spirit of the cardinals and bishops, having diligently studied
the nature and mission of the Roman Curia, we have commanded that this
Apostolic Constitution be drawn up, led by the hope that this venerable
institution, so necessary to the government of the Church, may respond
to that new pastoral impulse by which all the faithful are moved, laity,
priests and particularly bishops, especially now after the Second
Vatican Council, to listen ever more deeply and follow what the Spirit
is saying to the Churches (cf. Rev 2:7).

Just as all the pastors of the Church, and among them
in a special way the bishop of Rome, are keenly aware that they are
"Christ’s servants, stewards entrusted with the mysteries of
God" (1 Cor 4:1) and seek above all to be utterly loyal
helpers whom the Eternal Father may easily use to carry out the work of
salvation in the world, so also the Roman Curia has this strong desire,
in each and every sphere of its important work, to be filled with the
same spirit and the same inspiration; the Spirit, we say, of the Son of
Man, of Christ the only begotten of the Father, who "has come to
save what was lost" (Mt 18:11) and whose single and
all-embracing wish is that all men "may have life and have it to
the full" (Jn 10:10).

Therefore, with the help of God’s grace and of the
Most Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Church, we establish and
decree the following norms for the Roman Curia.

Art. 1 — The Roman Curia is the complex of
dicasteries and institutes which help the Roman Pontiff in the exercise
of his supreme pastoral office for the good and service of the whole
Church and of the particular Churches. It thus strengthens the unity of
the faith and the communion of the people of God and promotes the
mission proper to the Church in the world.

Structure of the Dicasteries

Art. 2 — § 1. By the word "dicasteries"
are understood the Secretariat of State, Congregations, Tribunals,
Councils and Offices, namely the Apostolic Camera, the Administration of
the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, and the Prefecture for the Economic
Affairs of the Holy See.

§ 2. The dicasteries are juridically equal among
themselves.

§ 3. Among the institutes of the Roman Curia are
the Prefecture of the Papal Household and the Office for the Liturgical
Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.

Art. 3 — § 1. Unless they have a
different structure in virtue of their specific nature or some special
law, the dicasteries are composed of the cardinal prefect or the
presiding archbishop, a body of cardinals and of some bishops, assisted
by a secretary, consultors, senior administrators, and a suitable number
of officials.

§ 2. According to the specific nature of certain
dicasteries, clerics and other faithful can be added to the body of
cardinals and bishops.

§ 3. Strictly speaking, the members of a
congregation are the cardinals and the bishops.

Art. 4. — The prefect or president acts as
moderator of the dicastery, directs it and acts in its name.

The secretary, with the help of the undersecretary,
assists the prefect or president in managing the business of the
dicastery as well as its human resources.

Art. 5 — § 1. The prefect or president,
the members of the body mentioned in art. 3, § 1, the secretary, and
the other senior administrators, as well as the consultors, are
appointed by the Supreme Pontiff for a five-year term.

§ 2. Once they have completed seventy-five years
of age, cardinal prefects are asked to submit their resignation to the
Roman Pontiff, who, after considering all factors, will make the
decision. Other moderators and secretaries cease from office, having
completed seventy-five years of age; members, when they have completed
eighty years of age; those who are attached to any dicastery by reason
of their office cease to be members when their office ceases.

Art. 6 — On the death of the Supreme Pontiff,
all moderators and members of the dicasteries cease from their office.
The camerlengo of the Roman Church and the major penitentiary are
excepted, who expedite ordinary business and refer to the College of
Cardinals those things which would have been referred to the Supreme
Pontiff.

The secretaries see to the ordinary operations of the
dicasteries, taking care of ordinary business only; they need to be
confirmed in office by the Supreme Pontiff within three months of his
election.

Art. 7 — The members of the body mentioned in
art. 3, § 1, are taken from among the cardinals living in Rome or
outside the city, to whom are added some bishops, especially diocesan
ones, insofar as they have special expertise in the matters being dealt
with; also, depending on the nature of the dicastery, some clerics and
other Christian faithful, with this proviso that matters requiring the
exercise of power of governance be reserved to those in holy orders.

Art. 8 — Consultors also are appointed from
among clerics or other Christian faithful outstanding for their
knowledge and prudence, taking into consideration, as much as possible,
the international character of the Church.

Art. 9 — Officials are taken from among the
Christian faithful, clergy or laity, noted for their virtue, prudence,
and experience, and for the necessary knowledge attested by suitable
academic degrees, and selected as far as possible from the various
regions of the world, so that the Curia may express the universal
character of the Church. The suitability of the applicants should be
evaluated by test or other appropriate means, according to the
circumstances.

Particular Churches, moderators of institutes of
consecrated life and of societies of apostolic life will not fail to
render assistance to the Apostolic See by allowing their Christian
faithful or their members to be available for service at the Roman
Curia.

Art. 10 — Each dicastery is to have its own
archive where incoming documents and copies of documents sent out are
kept safe and in good order in a system of "protocol"
organized according to modern methods.

Procedure

Art. 11 — § 1. Matters of major
importance are reserved to the general meeting, according to the nature
of each dicastery.

§ 2. All members must be called in due time to
the plenary sessions, held as far as possible once a year, to deal with
questions involving general principles, and for other questions which
the prefect or president may have deemed to require treatment. For
ordinary sessions it is sufficient to convoke members who reside in
Rome.

§ 3. The secretary participates in all sessions
with the right to vote.

Art. 12 — Consultors and those who are
equivalent to them are to make a diligent study of the matter in hand
and to present their considered opinion, usually in writing.

So far as opportunity allows and depending on the
nature of each dicastery, consultors can be called together to examine
questions in a collegial fashion and, as the case may be, present a
common position.

For individual cases, others can be called in for
consultation who, although not numbered among the consultors, are
qualified by their special expertise in the matter to be treated.

Art. 13 — Depending on their own proper field
of competence, the dicasteries deal with those matters which, because of
their special importance, either by their nature or by law, are reserved
to the Apostolic See and those which exceed the competence of individual
bishops and their groupings, as well as those matters committed to them
by the Supreme Pontiff. The dicasteries study the major problems of the
present age, so that the Church’s pastoral action may be more
effectively promoted and suitably coordinated, with due regard to
relations with the particular Churches. The dicasteries promote
initiatives for the good of the universal Church. Finally, they review
matters that the Christian faithful, exercising their own right, bring
to the attention of the Apostolic See.

Art. 14 — The competence of dicasteries is
defined on the basis of subject matter, unless otherwise expressly
provided for.

Art. 15 — Questions are to be dealt with
according to law, be it universal law or the special law of the Roman
Curia, and according to the norms of each dicastery, yet with pastoral
means and criteria, attentive both to justice and the good of the Church
and, especially, to the salvation of souls.

Art. 16 — Apart from the official Latin
language, it is acceptable to approach the Roman Curia in any of the
languages widely known today.

For the convenience of the dicasteries, a centre is
being established for translating documents into other languages.

Art. 17 — General documents prepared by one
dicastery will be communicated to other interested dicasteries, so that
the text may be improved with any corrections that may be suggested,
and, through common consultation, it may even be proceeded in a
coordinated manner to their implementation.

Art. 18 — Decisions of major importance are to
be submitted for the approval of the Supreme Pontiff, except decisions
for which special faculties have been granted to the moderators of the
dicasteries as well as the sentences of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota
and the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura within the limits of
their proper competence.

The dicasteries cannot issue laws or general decrees
having the force of law or derogate from the prescriptions of current
universal law, unless in individual cases and with the specific approval
of the Supreme Pontiff.

It is of the utmost importance that nothing grave and
extraordinary be transacted unless the Supreme Pontiff be previously
informed by the moderators of the dicasteries.

Art. 19 — § 1. Hierarchical recourses are
received by whichever dicastery has competence in that subject matter,
without prejudice to art. 21, § 1.

§ 2. Questions, however, which are to be dealt
with judicially are sent to the competent tribunals, without prejudice
to arts. 52-53.

Art. 20 — Conflicts of competence arising
between dicasteries are to be submitted to the Supreme Tribunal of the
Apostolic Signatura, unless it pleases the Supreme Pontiff to deal with
them otherwise.

Art. 21 — § 1. Matters touching the
competence of more than one dicastery are to be examined together by the
dicasteries concerned.

To enable them to exchange advice, a meeting will be
called by the moderator of the dicastery which has begun to deal with
the matter, either on his own initiative or at the request of another
dicastery concerned. However, if the subject matter demands it, it may
be referred to a plenary session of the dicasteries concerned.

The meeting will be chaired by the moderator of the
dicastery who called the meeting or by its secretary, if only the
secretaries are meeting.

§ 2. Where needed, permanent interdicasterial
commissions will be set up to deal with matters requiring mutual and
frequent consultation.

Meetings of Cardinals

Art. 22 — By mandate of the Supreme Pontiff,
the cardinals in charge of dicasteries meet together several times a
year to examine more important questions, coordinate their activities,
so that they may be able to exchange information and take counsel.

Art. 23 — More serious business of a general
character can be usefully dealt with, if the Supreme Pontiff so decides,
by the cardinals assembled in plenary consistory according to proper
law.

Council of Cardinals
for the Study of Organizational and Economic Questions of the Apostolic
See

Art. 24 — The Council of Cardinals for the
Study of Organizational and Economic Questions of the Apostolic See
consists of fifteen cardinals who head particular Churches from various
parts of the world and are appointed by the Supreme Pontiff for a
five-year term of office.

Art. 25 — § 1. The Council is convened by
the cardinal secretary of state, usually twice a year, to consider those
economic and organizational questions which relate to the administration
of the Holy See, with the assistance, as needed, of experts in these
affairs.

§ 2. The Council also considers the activities
of the special institute which is erected and located within the State
of Vatican City in order to safeguard and administer economic goods
placed in its care with the purpose of supporting works of religion and
charity. This institute is governed by a special law.

Relations with Particular Churches

Art. 26 — § 1. Close relations are to be
fostered with particular Churches and groupings of bishops, seeking out
their advice when preparing documents of major importance that have a
general character.

§ 2. As far as possible, documents of a general
character or having a special bearing on their particular Churches
should be communicated to the bishops before they are made public.

§ 3. Questions brought before the dicasteries
are to be diligently examined and, without delay, an answer or, at
least, a written acknowledgement of receipt, insofar as this is
necessary, should be sent.

Art. 27 — Dicasteries should not omit to
consult with papal legates regarding business affecting the particular
Churches where the legates are serving, nor should they omit to
communicate to the legates the results of their deliberations.

"Ad limina" Visits

Art. 28 — In keeping with a venerable tradition
and the prescriptions of law, bishops presiding over particular Churches
visit the tombs of the Apostles at predetermined times and on that
occasion present to the Roman Pontiff a report on the state of their
diocese.

Art. 29 — These kinds of visits have a special
importance in the life of the Church, marking as they do the summit of
the relationship of the pastors of each particular Church with the Roman
Pontiff. For he meets his brother bishops, and discusses with them
matters concerning the good of the Churches and the bishops’ role as
shepherds, and he confirms and supports them in faith and charity. This
strengthens the bonds of hierarchical communion and openly manifests the
catholicity of the Church and the unity of the episcopal college.

Art. 30 — The ad limina visits also
concern the dicasteries of the Roman Curia. For through these visits a
helpful dialogue between the bishops and the Apostolic See is increased
and deepened, information is shared, advice and timely suggestions are
brought forward for the greater good and progress of the Churches and
for the observance of the common discipline of the Church.

Art. 31 — These visits are to be prepared very
carefully and appropriately so that they proceed well and enjoy a
successful outcome in their three principal stages — namely, the
pilgrimage to the tombs of the Princes of the Apostles and their
veneration, the meeting with the Supreme Pontiff, and the meetings at
the dicasteries of the Roman Curia.

Art. 32 — For this purpose, the report on the
state of the diocese should be sent to the Holy See six months before
the time set for the visit. It is to be examined with all diligence by
the competent dicasteries, and their remarks are to be shared with a
special committee convened for this purpose so that a brief synthesis of
these may be drawn up and be readily at hand in the meetings.

Pastoral Character of the Activity
of the Roman Curia

Art. 33 — The activity of all who work at the
Roman Curia and the other institutes of the Holy See is a true ecclesial
service, marked with a pastoral character, that all must discharge with
a deep sense of duty as well as in a spirit of service, as it is a
sharing in the world-wide mission of the bishop of Rome.

Art. 34 — Each individual dicastery pursues its
own end, yet dicasteries cooperate with one another. Therefore, all who
are working in the Roman Curia are to do so in such a way that their
work may come together and be forged into one. Accordingly, all must
always be prepared to offer their services wherever needed.

Art. 35 — Although any work performed within
the institutes of the Holy See is a sharing in the apostolic action,
priests are to apply themselves as best they can to the care of souls,
without prejudice however to their own office.

Central Labour Office

Art. 36 — According to its own terms of
reference, the Central Labour Office deals with working conditions
within the Roman Curia and related questions.

Regulations

Art. 37 — To this Apostolic Constitution is
added an Ordo servandus or common norms setting forth the ways
and means of transacting business in the Curia itself, without prejudice
to the norms of this Constitution.

Art. 38 — Each dicastery is to have its own Ordo
servandus or special norms setting forth the ways and means of
transacting business within it.

The Ordo servandus of each dicastery shall be
made public in the usual manner of the Apostolic See.

Art. 39 — The Secretariat of State provides
close assistance to the Supreme Pontiff in the exercise of his supreme
office.

Art. 40 — The Secretariat is presided over by
the cardinal secretary of state. It is composed of two sections, the
First being the Section for General Affairs, under the direct
control of the substitute, with the help of the assessor; the Second
being the Section for Relations with States, under the direction
of its own secretary, with the help of the undersecretary. Attached to
this latter section is a council of cardinals and some bishops.

First Section

Art. 41 — § 1. It is the task of the
First Section in a special way to expedite the business concerning the
daily service of the Supreme Pontiff; to deal with those matters which
arise outside the ordinary competence of the dicasteries of the Roman
Curia and of the other institutes of the Apostolic See; to foster
relations with those dicasteries and coordinate their work, without
prejudice to their autonomy; to supervise the office and work of the
legates of the Holy See, especially as concerns the particular Churches.
This section deals with everything concerning the ambassadors of States
to the Holy See.

§ 2. In consultation with other competent
dicasteries, this section takes care of matters concerning the presence
and activity of the Holy See in international organizations, without
prejudice to art. 46. It does the same concerning Catholic
international organizations.

Art. 42 — It is also the task of the First
Section:

1: to draw up and dispatch apostolic
constitutions, decretal letters, apostolic letters, epistles, and other
documents entrusted to it by the Supreme Pontiff;

2. to prepare the appropriate documents
concerning appointments to be made or approved by the Supreme Pontiff in
the Roman Curia and in the other institutes depending on the Holy See;

3. to guard the leaden seal and the Fisherman’s
ring.

Art. 43 — It is likewise within the competence
of this Section:

1. to prepare for publication the acts and public
documents of the Holy See in the periodical entitled Acta Apostolicæ
Sedis;

2. through its special office commonly known as
the Press Office, to publish official announcements of acts of
the Supreme Pontiff or of the activities of the Holy See;

3. in consultation with the Second Section, to
oversee the newspaper called L’Osservatore romano, the Vatican
Radio Station, and the Vatican Television Centre.

Art. 44 — Through the Central Statistical
Office, it collects, organizes, and publishes all data, set down
according to statistical standards, concerning the life of the whole
Church throughout the world.

Second Section

Art. 45 — The Section for Relations with States
has the special task of dealing with heads of government.

Art. 46 — The Section for Relations with States
has within its competence:

1. to foster relations, especially those of a
diplomatic nature, with States and other subjects of public
international law, and to deal with matters of common interest,
promoting the good of the Church and of civil society by means of
concordats and other agreements of this kind, if the case arises, while
respecting the considered opinions of the groupings of bishops that may
be affected;

2. in consultation with the competent dicasteries
of the Roman Curia, to represent the Holy See at international
organizations and meetings concerning questions of a public nature;

3. within the scope of its competence, to deal
with what pertains to the papal legates.

Art. 47 — § 1. In special circumstances
and by mandate of the Supreme Pontiff, and in consultation with the
competent dicasteries of the Roman Curia, this Section sees to the
provision of particular Churches and the constitution of and changes to
these Churches and their groupings.

§ 2. In other cases, especially where a
concordat is in force, and without prejudice to art. 78, this
Section has competence to transact business with civil governments.

Art. 48 — The proper duty of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith is to promote and safeguard the doctrine
on faith and morals in the whole Catholic world; so it has competence in
things that touch this matter in any way.

Art. 49 — Fulfilling its duty of promoting
doctrine, the Congregation fosters studies so that the understanding of
the faith may grow and a response in the light of the faith may be given
to new questions arising from the progress of the sciences or human
culture.

Art. 50 — It helps the bishops, individually or
in groups, in carrying out their office as authentic teachers and
doctors of the faith, an office that carries with it the duty of
promoting and guarding the integrity of that faith.

Art. 51 — To safeguard the truth of faith and
the integrity of morals, the Congregation takes care lest faith or
morals suffer harm through errors that have been spread in any way
whatever.

Wherefore:

1. it has the duty of requiring that books and
other writings touching faith or morals, being published by the
Christian faithful, be subjected to prior examination by the competent
authority;

2. it examines carefully writings and opinions
that seem to be contrary or dangerous to true faith, and, if it is
established that they are opposed to the teaching of the Church,
reproves them in due time, having given authors full opportunity to
explain their minds, and having forewarned the Ordinary concerned; it
brings suitable remedies to bear, if this be opportune.

3. finally, it takes good care lest errors or
dangerous doctrines, which may have been spread among the Christian
people, do not go without apt rebuttal.

Art. 52 — The Congregation examines offences
against the faith and more serious ones both in behaviour or in the
celebration of the sacraments which have been reported to it and, if
need be, proceeds to the declaration or imposition of canonical
sanctions in accordance with the norms of common or proper law.

Art. 53 — It is to examine whatever concerns
the privilege of the faith, both in law and in fact.

Art. 54 — Documents being published by other
dicasteries of the Roman Curia, insofar as they touch on the doctrine of
faith or morals, are to be subjected to its prior judgement.

Art. 55 — Established within the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith are the Pontifical Biblical Commission and
the International Theological Commission, which act according to their
own approved norms and are presided over by the cardinal prefect of this
Congregation.

Art. 57 — § 1. The patriarchs and major
archbishops of the Oriental Churches, and the president of the Council
for Promoting Christian Unity, are ipso iure members of this
Congregation.

§ 2. The consultors and officials are to be
selected in such a way as to reflect as far as possible the diversity of
rites.

Art. 58 — § 1. The competence of this
Congregation extends to all matters which are proper to the Oriental
Churches and which are to be referred to the Apostolic See, whether
concerning the structure and organization of the Churches, the exercise
of the office of teaching, sanctifying and governing, or the status,
rights, and obligations of persons. It also handles everything that has
to be done concerning quinquennial reports and the ad limina
visits in accordance with arts. 31-32.

§ 2. This however does not infringe on the
proper and exclusive competence of the Congregations for the Doctrine of
the Faith and for the Causes of Saints, of the Apostolic Penitentiary,
the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura or the Tribunal of the
Roman Rota, as well as of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the
Discipline of the Sacraments for what pertains to dispensation from a
marriage ratum et non consummatum.

In matters which also affect the faithful of the Latin
Church, the Congregation will proceed, if the matter is sufficiently
important, in consultation with the dicastery that has competence in the
same matter for the faithful of the Latin Church.

Art. 59 — The Congregation pays careful
attention to communities of Oriental Christian faithful living within
the territories of the Latin Church, and attends to their spiritual
needs by providing visitators and even a hierarchy of their own, so far
as possible and where numbers and circumstances demand it, in
consultation with the Congregation competent for the establishment of
particular Churches in that region.

Art. 60 — In regions where Oriental rites have
been preponderant from ancient times, apostolic and missionary activity
depends solely on this Congregation, even if it is carried out by
missionaries of the Latin Church.

Art. 61 — The Congregation collaborates with
the Council for Promoting Christian Unity in matters which concern
relations with non-Catholic Oriental Churches and with the Council for
Inter-religious Dialogue in matters within the scope of this Council.

Congregation for Divine Worship and
the Discipline of the Sacraments

Art. 62 — The Congregation for Divine Worship
and the Discipline of the Sacraments does whatever pertains to the
Apostolic See concerning the regulation and promotion of the sacred
liturgy, primarily of the sacraments, without prejudice to the
competence of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Art. 63 — It fosters and safeguards the
regulation of the administration of the sacraments, especially regarding
their valid and licit celebration. It grants favours and dispensations
not contained in the faculties of diocesan bishops in this matter.

Art. 64 — § 1. By effective and suitable
means, the Congregation promotes liturgical pastoral activity,
especially regarding the celebration of the Eucharist; it gives support
to the diocesan bishops so that the Christian faithful may share more
and more actively in the sacred liturgy.

§ 2. It sees to the drawing up and revision of
liturgical texts. It reviews particular calendars and proper texts for
the Mass and the Divine Office for particular Churches and institutes
which enjoy that right.

§ 3. It grants the recognitio to
translations of liturgical books and their adaptations that have been
lawfully prepared by conferences of bishops.

Art. 65 — The Congregation fosters commissions
or institutes for promoting the liturgical apostolate or sacred music,
song or art, and it maintains relations with them. In accordance with
the law, it erects associations which have an international character or
approves or grants the recognitio to their statutes. Finally, it
contributes to the progress of liturgical life by encouraging meetings
from various regions.

Art. 66 — The Congregation provides attentive
supervision to ensure that liturgical norms are accurately observed, and
that abuses are avoided and eliminated where they are found to exist.

Art. 67 — This Congregation examines the fact
of non-consummation in a marriage and the existence of a just cause for
granting a dispensation. It receives all the acts together with the votum
of the bishop and the remarks of the defender of the bond, weighs them
according to its own special procedure, and, if the case warrants it,
submits a petition to the Supreme Pontiff requesting the dispensation.

Art. 68 — It is also competent to examine, in
accordance with the law, cases concerning the nullity of sacred
ordination.

Art. 69 — This Congregation has competence
concerning the cult of sacred relics, the confirmation of heavenly
patrons and the granting of the title of minor basilica.

Art. 70 — The Congregation gives assistance to
bishops so that, in addition to liturgical worship, the prayers and
pious exercises of the Christian people, in full harmony with the norms
of the Church, may be fostered and held in high esteem.

Congregation for the Causes of
Saints

Art. 71 — The Congregation for the Causes of
Saints deals with everything which, according to the established way,
leads to the canonization of the servants of God.

Art. 72 — § 1. With special norms and
timely advice, it assists diocesan bishops, who have competence to
instruct the cause.

§ 2. It considers causes that have already been
instructed, inquiring whether everything has been carried out in
accordance with the law. It thoroughly examines the causes that have
thus been reviewed, in order to judge whether everything required is
present for a favorable recommendation to be submitted to the Supreme
Pontiff, according to the previously established classification of
causes.

Art. 73 — The Congregation also is competent to
examine what is necessary for the granting of the title of doctor to
saints, after having received the recommendation of the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith concerning outstanding teaching.

Art. 74 — Moreover, it has competence to decide
everything concerning the authentication of holy relics and their
preservation.

Congregation for Bishops

Art. 75 — The Congregation for Bishops examines
what pertains to the establishment and provision of particular Churches
and to the exercise of the episcopal office in the Latin Church, without
prejudice to the competence of the Congregation for the Evangelization
of Peoples.

Art. 76 — This Congregation deals with
everything concerning the constitution, division, union, suppression,
and other changes of particular Churches and of their groupings. It also
erects military ordinariates for the pastoral care of the armed forces.

Art. 77 — It deals with everything concerning
the appointment of bishops, even titular ones, and generally with the
provision of particular Churches.

Art. 78 — Whenever it is a matter of dealing
with civil governments, either in establishing or modifying particular
Churches and their groupings or in the provision of these Churches, this
Congregation must procede only after consultation with the Section for
Relations with States of the Secretariat of State.

Art. 79 — Furthermore, the Congregation applies
itself to matters relating to the correct exercise of the pastoral
function of the bishops, by offering them every kind of assistance. For
it is part of its duty to initiate general apostolic visitations where
needed, in agreement with the dicasteries concerned and, in the same
manner, to evaluate their results and to propose to the Supreme Pontiff
the appropriate actions to be taken.

Art. 80 — This Congregation has competence over
everything involving the Holy See in the matter of personal prelatures.

Art. 81 — For the particular Churches assigned
to its care, the Congregation takes care of everything with respect to
the ad limina visits; so it studies the quinquennial reports,
submitted in accordance with art. 32. It is available to the
bishops who come to Rome, especially to see that suitable arrangements
are made for the meeting with the Supreme Pontiff and for other meetings
and pilgrimages. When the visit is completed, it communicates in writing
to the diocesan bishops the conclusions concerning their dioceses.

Art. 82 — The Congregation deals with matters
pertaining to the celebration of particular councils as well as the
erection of conferences of bishops and the recognitio of their
statutes. It receives the acts of these bodies and, in consultation with
the dicasteries concerned, it examines the decrees which require the recognitio
of the Apostolic See.

Pontifical Commission for Latin
America

Art. 83 — § 1. The function of the
Pontifical Commission for Latin America is to be available to the
particular Churches in Latin America, by counsel and by action, taking a
keen interest in the questions that affect the life and progress of
those Churches; and especially to help the Churches themselves in the
solution of those questions, or to be helpful to those dicasteries of
the Curia that are involved by reason of their competence.

§ 2. It is also to foster relations between the
national and international ecclesiastical institutes that work for the
regions of Latin America and the dicasteries of the Roman Curia.

Art. 84 — § 1. The president of the
Commission is the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, assisted by a
bishop as vice-president.

They have as counselors some bishops either from the
Roman Curia or selected from the Churches of Latin America.

§ 2. The members of the Commission are selected
either from the dicasteries of the Roman Curia or from the Consejo
episcopal latinoamericano, whether they be from among the bishops of
Latin America or from the institutes mentioned in the preceding article.

§ 3. The Commission has its own staff.

Congregation for the Evangelization
of Peoples

Art. 85 — It pertains to the Congregation for
the Evangelization of Peoples to direct and coordinate throughout the
world the actual work of spreading the Gospel as well as missionary
cooperation, without prejudice to the competence of the Congregation for
the Oriental Churches.

Art. 86 — The Congregation promotes research in
mission theology, spirituality and pastoral work; it likewise proposes
principles, norms, and procedures, fitting the needs of time and place,
by which evangelization is carried out.

Art. 87 — The Congregation strives to bring the
people of God, well aware of their duty and filled with missionary
spirit, to cooperate effectively in the missionary task by their prayers
and the witness of their lives, by their active work and contributions.

§ 2. In the territories subject to it, it also
cares for the education of the secular clergy and of catechists, without
prejudice to the competence of the Congregation of Seminaries and
Educational Institutions concerning the general programme of studies, as
well as what pertains to the universities and other institutes of higher
education.

Art. 89 — Within its competence are mission
territories, the evangelization of which is committed to suitable
institutes and societies and to particular Churches. For these
territories it deals with everything pertaining to the establishment and
change of ecclesiastical circumscriptions and to the provision of these
Churches, and it carries out the other functions that the Congregation
of Bishops fulfills within the scope of its competence.

Art. 90 — § 1. With regard to members of
institutes of consecrated life, whether these are erected in the mission
territories or are just working there, the Congregation enjoys
competence in matters touching those members as missionaries,
individually and collectively, without prejudice to art. 21,
§ 1.

§ 2. Those societies of apostolic life that were
founded for the missions are subject to this Congregation.

Art. 91 — To foster missionary cooperation,
even through the effective collection and equal distribution of
subsidies, the Congregation chiefly uses the Pontifical Missionary
Works, namely, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Society
of St. Peter the Apostle, and the Holy Childhood Association, as well as
the Pontifical Missionary Union of the Clergy.

Art. 92 — Through a special office, the
Congregation administers its own funds and other resources destined for
the missions, with full accountability to the Prefecture for the
Economic Affairs of the Holy See.

Congregation for the Clergy

Art. 93 — Without prejudice to the right of
bishops and their conferences, the Congregation for the Clergy examines
matters regarding priests and deacons of the secular clergy, with regard
to their persons and pastoral ministry, and with regard to resources
available to them for the exercise of this ministry; and in all these
matters the Congregation offers timely assistance to the bishops.

Art. 94 — It has the function of promoting the
religious education of the Christian faithful of all ages and
conditions; it issues timely norms so that catechetical instruction is
correctly conducted; it gives great attention so that catechetical
formation is properly given; and, with the assent of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, it grants the prescribed approval of the
Holy See for catechisms and other writings pertaining to catechetical
instruction. It is available to catechetical offices and international
initiatives on religious education, coordinates their activities and,
where necessary, lends assistance.

§ 3. It fosters the ongoing education of clergy,
especially concerning their sanctification and the effective exercise of
their pastoral ministry, most of all in the fitting preaching of the
Word of God.

Art. 96 — This Congregation deals with
everything that has to do with the clerical state as such for all
clergy, including religious, in consultation with the dicasteries
involved when the matter so requires.

Art. 97 — The Congregation deals with those
matters that are within the competence of the Holy See:

2. and those concerning Mass obligations as well
as pious wills in general and pious foundations.

Art. 98 — The Congregation carries out
everything that pertains to the Holy See regarding the regulation of
ecclesiastical goods, and especially their correct administration; it
grants the necessary approvals and recognitiones, and it further
sees to it that serious thought is given to the support and social
security of the clergy.

Pontifical Commission for Preserving
the Patrimony of Art and History

Art. 99 — At the Congregation for the Clergy
there exists the Pontifical Commission for Preserving the Patrimony of
Art and History that has the duty of acting as curator for the artistic
and historical patrimony of the whole Church.

Art. 100 — To this patrimony belong, in the
first place, all works of every kind of art of the past, works that must
be kept and preserved with the greatest care. Those works whose proper
use has ceased are to be kept in a suitable manner in museums of the
Church or elsewhere.

Art. 101 — § 1. Outstanding among
valuable historical objects are all documents and materials referring
and testifying to pastoral life and care, as well as to the rights and
obligations of dioceses, parishes, churches, and other juridical persons
in the Church.

§ 2. This historical patrimony is to be kept in
archives or also in libraries and everywhere entrusted to competent
curators lest testimonies of this kind be lost.

Art. 102 — The Commission lends its assistance
to particular Churches and conferences of bishops and together with
them, where the case arises, sees to the setting up of museums,
archives, and libraries, and ensures that the entire patrimony of art
and history in the whole territory is properly collected and safeguarded
and made available to all who have an interest in it.

Art. 103 — In consultation with the
Congregation for Seminaries and Educational Institutions and the
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments,
the Commission has the task of striving to make the people of God more
and more aware of the need and importance of conserving the artistic and
historical patrimony of the Church.

Art. 104 — The president of the Commission is
the cardinal prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, assisted by the
secretary of the Commission. Moreover, the Commission has its own staff.

Congregation for Institutes of
Consecrated Life and for Societies of Apostolic Life

Art. 105 — The principal function of the
Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of
Apostolic Life is to promote and supervise in the whole Latin Church the
practice of the evangelical counsels as they are lived in approved forms
of consecrated life and, at the same time, the work of societies of
apostolic life.

Art. 106 — § 1. The Congregation erects
and approves religious and secular institutes and societies of apostolic
life, or passes judgement on the suitability of their erection by the
diocesan bishop. It also suppresses such institutes and societies if
necessary.

§ 2. The Congregation is also competent to
establish, or, if need be, to rescind, the unions or federations of
institutes and societies.

Art. 107 — The Congregation for its part takes
care that institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life
grow and flourish according to the spirit of their founders and healthy
traditions, faithfully follow their proper purpose and truly benefit the
salvific mission of the Church.

Art. 108 — § 1. It deals with everything
which, in accordance with the law, belongs to the Holy See concerning
the life and work of the institutes and societies, especially the
approval of their constitutions, their manner of government and
apostolate, the recruitment and training as well as the rights and
obligations of members, dispensation from vows and the dismissal of
members, and the administration of goods.

§ 2. However, the organization of philosophical
and theological studies and other academic subjects comes within the
competence of the Congregation of Seminaries and Institutes of Studies.

Art. 109 — It is the function of this
Congregation to establish conferences of major superiors of men and
women religious, to grant approval to their statutes and to give great
attention in order that their activities are directed to achieving their
true purpose.

Art. 110 — The Congregation has competence also
regarding eremetical life, the order of virgins and their associations
as well as other forms of consecrated life.

Art. 111 — Its competence also embraces the
third orders and associations of the faithful which are erected with the
intention that, after a period of preparation, they may eventually
become institutes of consecrated life or societies of apostolic life.

Congregation of Seminaries and
Educational Institutions

Art. 112 — The Congregation of Seminaries and
Educational Institutions gives practical expression to the concern of
the Apostolic See for the training of those who are called to holy
orders, and for the promotion and organization of Catholic education.

Art. 113 — § 1. It is available to the
bishops so that in their Churches vocations to the sacred ministry may
be cultivated to the highest degree, and seminaries may be established
and conducted in accordance with the law, where students may be suitably
trained, receiving a solid formation that is human and spiritual,
doctrinal and pastoral.

§ 2. It carefully sees to it that the way of
life and government of the seminaries be in full harmony with the
programme of priestly education, and that the superiors and teachers, by
the example of their life and sound doctrine, contribute their utmost to
the formation of the personality of the sacred ministers.

§ 3. It is also its responsibility to erect
interdiocesan seminaries and to approve their statutes.

Art. 114 — The Congregation makes every effort
to see that the fundamental principles of Catholic education as set out
by the magisterium of the Church be ever more deeply researched,
championed, and known by the people of God.

It also takes care that in this matter the Christian
faithful may be able to fulfill their duties and also strive to bring
civil society to recognize and protect their rights.

Art. 115 — The Congregation sets the norms by
which Catholic schools are governed. It is available to diocesan bishops
so that, wherever possible, Catholic schools be established and fostered
with the utmost care, and that in every school appropriate undertakings
bring catechetical instruction and pastoral care to the Christian
pupils.

Art. 116 — § 1. The Congregation labours
to ensure that there be in the Church a sufficient number of
ecclesiastical and Catholic universities as well as other educational
institutions in which the sacred disciplines may be pursued in depth,
studies in the humanities and the sciences may be promoted, with due
regard for Christian truth, so that the Christian faithful may be
suitably trained to fulfill their own tasks.

§ 2. It erects or approves ecclesiastical
universities and institutions, ratifies their statutes, exercises the
highest supervision over them and ensures that the integrity of the
Catholic faith is preserved in teaching doctrine.

§ 3. With regard to Catholic universities, it
deals with those matters that are within the competence of the Holy See.

§ 4. It fosters cooperation and mutual help
between universities and their associations and serves as a resource for
them.

Art. 119 — The Apostolic Penitentiary sees to
it that in the patriarchal basilicas of Rome there be a sufficient
number of penitentiaries supplied with the appropriate faculties.

Art. 120 — This dicastery is charged with the
granting and use of indulgences, without prejudice to the right of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to review what concerns
dogmatic teaching about them.

Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic
Signatura

Art. 121 — The Apostolic Signatura functions as
the supreme tribunal and also ensures that justice in the Church is
correctly administered.

Art. 122 — This Tribunal adjudicates:

1. complaints of nullity and petitions for total
reinstatement against sentences of the Roman Rota;

2. in cases concerning the status of persons,
recourses when the Roman Rota has denied a new examination of the case;

3. exceptions of suspicion and other proceedings
against judges of the Roman Rota arising from the exercise of their
functions;

4. conflicts of competence between tribunals
which are not subject to the same appellate tribunal.

Art. 123 — § 1. The Signatura adjudicates
recourses lodged within the peremptory limit of thirty canonical days
against singular administrative acts whether issued by the dicasteries
of the Roman Curia or approved by them, whenever it is contended that
the impugned act violated some law either in the decision-making process
or in the procedure used.

§ 2. In these cases, in addition to the
judgement regarding illegality of the act, it can also adjudicate, at
the request of the plaintiff, the reparation of damages incurred through
the unlawful act.

§ 3. The Signatura also adjudicates other
administrative controversies referred to it by the Roman Pontiff or by
dicasteries of the Roman Curia, as well as conflicts of competence
between these dicasteries.

Art. 124 — The Signatura also has the
responsibility:

1. to exercise vigilance over the correct
administration of justice, and, if need be, to censure advocates and
procurators;

2. to deal with petitions presented to the
Apostolic See for obtaining the commission of a case to the Roman Rota
or some other favour relative to the administration of justice;

3. to extend the competence of lower tribunals;

4. to grant its approval to tribunals for appeals
reserved to the Holy See, and to promote and approve the erection of
interdiocesan tribunals.

Art. 125 — The Apostolic Signatura is governed
by its own law.

Tribunal of the Roman Rota

Art. 126 — The Roman Rota is a court of higher
instance at the Apostolic See, usually at the appellate stage, with the
purpose of safeguarding rights within the Church; it fosters unity of
jurisprudence, and, by virtue of its own decisions, provides assistance
to lower tribunals.

Art. 127 — The judges of this Tribunal
constitute a college. Persons of proven doctrine and experience, they
have been selected by the Supreme Pontiff from various parts of the
world. The Tribunal is presided over by a dean, likewise appointed by
the Supreme Pontiff from among the judges and for a specific term of
office.

Art. 128 — This Tribunal adjudicates:

1. in second instance, cases that have been
decided by ordinary tribunals of first instance and are being referred
to the Holy See by legitimate appeal;

2. in third or further instance, cases already
decided by the same Apostolic Tribunal and by any other tribunals,
unless they have become a res iudicata.

Art. 129 — § 1. The Tribunal, however,
judges the following in first instance:

1. bishops in contentious matters, unless it is a
question of the rights or temporal goods of a juridical person
represented by the bishop;

2. abbots primate or abbots superior of a
monastic congregation and supreme moderators of religious institutes of
pontifical right;

3. dioceses or other ecclesiastical persons,
whether physical or juridical, which have no superior below the Roman
Pontiff;

4. cases which the Supreme Pontiff commits to
this Tribunal.

§ 2. It deals with the same cases even in second
and further instances, unless other provisions are made.

Art. 131 — The Pontifical Council for the Laity
is competent in those matters pertaining to the Apostolic See regarding
the promotion and coordination of the apostolate of the laity and,
generally, in those matters respecting the Christian life of laypeople
as such.

Art. 132 — The president is assisted by an
Advisory Board of cardinals and bishops. Figuring especially among the
members of the Council are certain Christian faithful engaged in various
fields of activity.

Art. 133 — § 1. The Council is to urge
and support laypeople to participate in the life and mission of the
Church in their own way, as individuals or in associations, especially
so that they may carry out their special responsibility of filling the
temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel.

§ 2. It fosters joint action among laypeople in
catechetical instruction, in liturgical and sacramental life as well as
in works of mercy, charity, and social development.

§ 3. The Council attends to and organizes
international conferences and other projects concerning the apostolate
of the laity.

Art. 134 — Within the parameters of its own
competence, the Council performs all activities regarding lay
associations of the Christian faithful; it erects associations of an
international character and provides approval or recognitio for
their statutes, without prejudice to the competence of the Secretariat
of State. As for secular third orders, the Council deals only with those
matters concerning their apostolic activities.

Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity

Art. 135 — It is the function of the Pontifical
Council for Promoting Christian Unity to engage in ecumenical work
through timely initiatives and activities, labouring to restore unity
among Christians.

Art. 136 — § 1. It sees that the decrees
of the Second Vatican Council pertaining to ecumenism are put into
practice.

It deals with the correct interpretation of the
principles of ecumenism and enjoins that they be carried out.

§ 2. It fosters, brings together, and
coordinates national and international Catholic organizations promoting
Christian unity, and supervises their undertakings.

§ 3. After prior consultation with the Supreme
Pontiff, the Council maintains relations with Christians of Churches and
ecclesial communities that do not yet have full communion with the
Catholic Church, and especially organizes dialogue and meetings to
promote unity with them, with the help of theological experts of sound
doctrine. As often as may seem opportune, the Council deputes Catholic
observers to Christian meetings, and it invites observers from other
Churches and ecclesial communities to Catholic meetings.

Art. 137 — § 1. Since the Council often
deals with matters which by their very nature touch on questions of
faith, it must proceed in close connection with the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, especially if declarations and public documents
have to be issued.

§ 2. In dealing with important matters
concerning the separated Oriental Churches, the Council must first hear
the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.

Art. 138 — Within the Council there exists a
Commission to study and deal with matters concerning the Jews from a
religious perspective, the Commission for Religious Relations with the
Jews; the president of the Council presides over the Commission.

Pontifical Council for the Family

Art. 139 — The Pontifical Council for the
Family promotes the pastoral care of families, protects their rights and
dignity in the Church and in civil society, so that they may ever be
more able to fulfill their duties.

Art. 140 — The president is assisted by an
advisory board of bishops. Figuring above all among the members of the
Council are laypeople, both men and women, especially married ones, from
all over the world.

Art. 141 — § 1. The Council works for a
deeper understanding of the Church’s teaching on the family and for
its spread through suitable catechesis. It encourages studies in the
spirituality of marriage and the family.

§ 2. It works together with the bishops and
their conferences to ensure the accurate recognition of the human and
social conditions of the family institution everywhere and to ensure a
strong general awareness of initiatives that help pastoral work for
families.

§ 3. The Council strives to ensure that the
rights of the family be acknowledged and defended even in the social and
political realm. It also supports and coordinates initiatives to protect
human life from the first moment of conception and to encourage
responsible procreation.

§ 4. Without prejudice to art. 133, it
follows the activities of institutes and associations which work for the
good of the family.

Pontifical Council for Justice and
Peace

Art. 142 — The goal of the Pontifical Council
for Justice and Peace is to promote justice and peace in the world in
accordance with the Gospel and the social teaching of the Church.

Art. 143 — § 1. The Council makes a
thorough study of the social teaching of the Church and ensures that
this teaching is widely spread and put into practice among people and
communities, especially regarding the relations between workers and
management, relations that must come to be more and more imbued with the
spirit of the Gospel.

§ 2. It collects information and research on
justice and peace, about human development and violations of human
rights; it ponders all this, and, when appropriate, shares its
conclusions with the groupings of bishops. It cultivates relationships
with Catholic international organizations and other institutions, even
ones outside the Catholic Church, which sincerely strive to achieve
peace and justice in the world.

§ 3. It works to form among peoples a mentality
which fosters peace, especially on the occasion of World Peace Day.

Art. 144 — The Council has a special
relationship with the Secretariat of State, especially whenever matters
of peace and justice have to be dealt with in public by documents or
announcements.

Pontifical Council "Cor unum"

Art. 145 — The Pontifical Council "Cor
unum" shows the solicitude of the Catholic Church for the needy, to
foster human fraternity and make manifest Christ’s charity.

Art. 146 — It is the function of the Council:

1. to stimulate the Christian faithful as
participants in the mission of the Church, to give witness to
evangelical charity and to support them in this concern;

2. to foster and coordinate the initiatives of
Catholic organizations that labour to help peoples in need, especially
those who go to the rescue in the more urgent crises and disasters, and
to facilitate their relations with public international organizations
operating in the same field of assistance and good works;

3. to give serious attention and promote plans
and undertakings for joint action and neighbourly help serving human
progress.

Art. 147 — The president of this Council is the
same as the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace,
who sees to it that the activities of both dicasteries are closely
coordinated.

Art. 148 — To ensure that the objectives of the
Council are more effectively achieved, among members of the Council are
also men and women representing Catholic charitable organizations.

Pontifical Council for the Pastoral
Care of Migrants and Itinerant People

Art. 149 — The Pontifical Council for the
Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People brings the pastoral
concern of the Church to bear on the special needs of those who have
been forced to leave their native land or who do not have one. It also
sees to it that these matters are considered with the attention they
deserve.

Art. 150 — § 1. The Council ensures that
in the particular Churches refugees and exiles, migrants, nomads, and
circus workers receive effective and special spiritual care, even, if
necessary, by means of suitable pastoral structures.

§ 2. It likewise fosters pastoral solicitude in
these same Churches for sailors, at sea and in port, especially through
the Apostleship of the Sea, over which it exercises ultimate direction.

§ 3. The Council has the same concern for those
who work in airports or airplanes.

§ 4. It works to ensure that the Christian
people become aware of the needs of these people and effectively
demonstrate a fraternal attitude towards them, especially on the
occasion of World Migration Day.

Art. 151 — The Council works to ensure that
journeys which Christians undertake for reasons of piety, study, or
recreation, contribute to their moral and religious formation, and it is
available to the particular Churches in order that all who are away from
home receive suitable spiritual care.

Pontifical Council for Pastoral
Assistance to Health Care Workers

Art. 152 — The Pontifical Council for Pastoral
Assistance to Health Care Workers shows the solicitude of the Church for
the sick by helping those who serve the sick and suffering, so that
their apostolate of mercy may ever more effectively respond to
people’s needs.

Art. 153 — § 1. The Council is to spread
the Church’s teaching on the spiritual and moral aspects of illness as
well as the meaning of human suffering.

§ 2. It lends its assistance to the particular
Churches to ensure that health care workers receive spiritual help in
carrying out their work according to Christian teachings, and especially
that in turn the pastoral workers in this field may never lack the help
they need to carry out their work.

§ 3. The Council fosters studies and actions
which international Catholic organizations or other institutions
undertake in this field.

§ 4. With keen interest it follows new health
care developments in law and science so that these may be duly taken
into account in the pastoral work of the Church.

Pontifical Council for the
Interpretation of Legislative Texts

Art. 154 — The function of the Pontifical
Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts consists mainly in
interpreting the laws of the Church.

Art. 155 —With regard to the universal laws of
the Church, the Council is competent to publish authentic
interpretations confirmed by pontifical authority, after consulting the
dicasteries concerned in questions of major importance.

Art. 156 — This Council is at the service of
the other Roman dicasteries to assist them to ensure that general
executory decrees and instructions which they are going to publish are
in conformity with the prescriptions of the law currently in force and
that they are drawn up in a correct juridical form.

Art. 157 — Moreover, the general decrees of the
conferences of bishops are to be submitted to this Council by the
dicastery which is competent to grant them the recognitio, in
order that they be examined from a juridical perspective.

Art. 158 — At the request of those interested,
this Council determines whether particular laws and general decrees
issued by legislators below the level of the supreme authority are in
agreement or not with the universal laws of the Church.

Pontifical Council for
Inter-Religious Dialogue

Art. 159 — The Pontifical Council for
Inter-Religious Dialogue fosters and supervises relations with members
and groups of non-Christian religions as well as with those who are in
any way endowed with religious feeling.

Art. 160 — The Council fosters suitable
dialogue with the followers of other religions and encourages various
kinds of relations with them. It promotes appropriate studies and
conferences to develop mutual information and esteem, so that human
dignity and the spiritual and moral riches of people may ever grow. The
Council sees to the formation of those who engage in this kind of
dialogue.

Art. 161 — When the matter under consideration so
requires, the Council must proceed in the exercise of its own function
in consultation with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
and, if need be, with the Congregations for the Oriental Churches and
for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Art. 162 — This Council has a Commission, under
the direction of the president of the Council, for fostering relations
with Muslims from a religious perspective.

Pontifical Council for Dialogue with
Non-Believers

Art. 163 — The Pontifical Council for Dialogue
with Non-Believers shows the pastoral solicitude of the Church for those
who do not believe in God or who profess no religion.

Art. 164 — It promotes the study of atheism and
of the lack of faith and religion, looking into their causes and their
consequences with regard to the Christian faith, so that suitable
assistance may be given to pastoral action through the work especially
of Catholic educational institutions.

Art. 165 — The Council sets up dialogue with
atheists and unbelievers whenever they agree to sincere cooperation, and
it is represented by true specialists at conferences on this matter.

Pontifical Council for Culture

Art. 166 — The Pontifical Council for Culture
fosters relations between the Holy See and the realm of human culture,
especially by promoting communication with various contemporary
institutions of learning and teaching, so that secular culture may be
more and more open to the Gospel, and specialists in the sciences,
literature, and the arts may feel themselves called by the Church to
truth, goodness, and beauty.

Art. 167 — The Council has its own special
structure. The president is assisted by an advisory board and another
board, composed of specialists of various disciplines from several parts
of the world.

Art. 168 — The Council on its own undertakes
suitable projects with respect to culture. It follows through on those
which are undertaken by various institutes of the Church, and, so far as
necessary, lends them assistance. In consultation with the Secretariat
of State, it shows interest in measures adopted by countries and
international agencies in support of human culture and, as appropriate,
it is present in the principal organizations in the field of culture and
fosters conferences.

Pontifical Council for Social
Communications

Art. 169 — § 1. The Pontifical Council
for Social Communications is involved in questions regarding the means
of social communication, so that, also by these means, human progress
and the message of salvation may benefit secular culture and mores.

§ 2. In carrying out its functions, the Council
must proceed in close connection with the Secretariat of State.

Art. 170 — § 1. The chief task of this
Council is to encourage and support in a timely and suitable way the
action of the Church and her members in the many forms of social
communication. It takes care to see that newspapers and periodicals, as
well as films and radio or television broadcasts, are more and more
imbued with a human and Christian spirit.

§ 2. With special solicitude the Council looks
to Catholic newspapers and periodicals, as well as radio and television
stations, that they may truly live up to their nature and function, by
transmitting especially the teaching of the Church as it is laid out by
the Church’s magisterium, and by spreading religious news accurately
and faithfully.

§ 3. It fosters relations with Catholic
associations active in social communications.

§ 4. It takes steps to make the Christian people
aware, especially on the occasion offered by World Communications Day,
of the duty of every person to work to ensure that the media are of
service to the Church’s pastoral mission.

Art. 171 — § 1. The Apostolic Camera,
presided over by the cardinal camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church,
assisted by the vice-camerlengo and the other prelates of the Camera,
chiefly exercises the functions assigned to it by the special law on the
vacancy of the Apostolic See.

§ 2. When the Apostolic See falls vacant, it is
the right and the duty of the cardinal camerlengo of the Holy Roman
Church, personally or through his delegate, to request reports from all
the administrations dependent on the Holy See on their patrimonial and
economic status as well as information on any extraordinary business
that may at that time be under way, and, from the Prefecture for the
Economic Affairs of the Holy See he shall request a financial statement
on income and expenditures of the previous year and the budgetary
estimates for the following year. He is obliged to submit these reports
and estimates to the College of Cardinals.

Administration of the Patrimony of
the Apostolic See

Art. 172 — It is the function of the
Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See to administer the
properties owned by the Holy See in order to provide the funds necessary
for the Roman Curia to function.

Art. 173 — This Council is presided over by a
cardinal assisted by a board of cardinals; and it is composed of two
sections, the Ordinary Section and the Extraordinary, under the control
of the prelate secretary.

Art. 174 — The Ordinary Section administers the
properties entrusted to its care, calling in the advice of experts if
needed; it examines matters concerning the juridical and economic status
of the employees of the Holy See; it supervises institutions under its
fiscal responsibility; it sees to the provision of all that is required
to carry out the ordinary business and specific aims of the dicasteries;
it maintains records of income and expenditures, prepares the accounts
of the money received and paid out for the past year, and draws up the
estimates for the year to come.

Art. 175 — The Extraordinary Section
administers its own moveable goods and acts as a guardian for moveable
goods entrusted to it by other institutes of the Holy See.

Prefecture for the Economic Affairs
of the Holy See

Art. 176 — The Prefecture for the Economic
Affairs of the Holy See has the function of supervising and governing
the temporal goods of the administrations that are dependent on the Holy
See, or of which the Holy See has charge, whatever the autonomy these
administrations may happen to enjoy.

Art. 177 — The Prefecture is presided over by a
cardinal assisted by a board of cardinals, with the collaboration of the
prelate secretary and the general accountant.

Art. 178 — § 1. It studies the reports on
the patrimonial and economic status of the Holy See, as well as the
statements of income and expenditures for the previous year and the
budget estimates for the following year of the administrations mentioned
in art. 176, by inspecting books and documents, if need be.

§ 2. The Prefecture compiles the Holy See’s
consolidated financial statement of the previous year’s expenditures
as well as the consolidated estimates of the next year’s expenditures,
and submits these at specific times to higher authority for approval.

Art. 179 — § 1. The Prefecture supervises
financial undertakings of the administrations and expresses its opinion
concerning projects of major importance.

§ 2. It inquires into damages inflicted in
whatever manner on the patrimony of the Holy See, and, if need be,
lodges penal or civil actions to the competent tribunals.

Art. 180 — The Prefecture of the Papal
Household looks after the internal organization of the papal household,
and supervises everything concerning the conduct and service of all
clerics and laypersons who make up the papal chapel and family.

Art. 181 — § 1. It is at the service of
the Supreme Pontiff, both in the Apostolic Palace and when he travels in
Rome or in Italy.

§ 2. Apart from the strictly liturgical aspect,
which is handled by the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the
Supreme Pontiff, the Prefecture sees to the planning and carrying out of
papal ceremonies and determines the order of precedence.

§ 3. It arranges public and private audiences
with the Pontiff, in consultation with the Secretariat of State whenever
circumstances so demand and under its direction it arranges the
procedures to be followed when the Roman Pontiff meets in a solemn
audience with heads of State, ambassadors, members of governments,
public authorities, and other distinguished persons.

Office for the Liturgical
Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff

Art. 182 — § 1. The Office for the Liturgical
Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff is to prepare all that is necessary
for the liturgical and other sacred celebrations performed by the
Supreme Pontiff or in his name and supervise them according to the
current prescriptions of liturgical law.

§ 2. The master of papal liturgical celebrations
is appointed by the Supreme Pontiff to a five-year term of office; papal
masters of ceremonies who assist him in sacred celebrations are likewise
appointed by the secretary of state to a term of the same length.

Art. 183 — Apart from the advocates of the
Roman Rota and the advocates for the causes of saints, there is a roster
of advocates who, at the request of interested parties, are qualified to
represent them in their cases at the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic
Signatura and to offer assistance in hierarchical recourses lodged
before dicasteries of the Roman Curia.

Art. 184 — Candidates can be inscribed in the
roster by the cardinal secretary of state, after he has consulted a
commission stably constituted for this purpose. Candidates must be
qualified by a suitable preparation attested by appropriate academic
degrees, and at the same time be recommended by their example of a
Christian life, honourable character, and expertise. Should any of this
cease to be the case at a later date, the advocate shall be struck from
the roster.

Art. 185 — § 1. The body called
"Advocates of the Holy See" is composed mainly of advocates
listed in the roster of advocates, and its members are able to undertake
the representation of cases in civil or ecclesiastical tribunals in the
name of the Holy See or the dicasteries of the Roman Curia.

§ 2. They are appointed by the cardinal
secretary of state to a five-year term of office on the recommendation
of the commission mentioned in art. 184; for serious reasons, they
may be removed from office. Once they have completed seventy-five years
of age, they cease their office.

Art. 186 — There are certain institutes, some
of ancient origin and some not long established, which do not belong to
the Roman Curia in a strict sense but nevertheless provide useful or
necessary services to the Supreme Pontiff himself, to the Curia and the
whole Church, and are in some way connected with the Apostolic See.

Art. 187 — Among such institutes are the
Vatican Secret Archives, where documents of the Church’s governance
are preserved first of all so that they may be available to the Holy See
itself and to the Curia as they carry out their own work, but then also,
by papal permission, so that they may be available to everyone engaged
in historical research and serve as a source of information on all areas
of secular history that have been closely connected with the life of the
Church in centuries gone by.

Art. 188 — In the Vatican Apostolic Library,
established by the Supreme Pontiffs, the Church has a remarkable
instrument for fostering, guarding, and spreading culture. In its
various sections, it offers to scholars researching truth a treasure of
every kind of art and knowledge.

Art. 189 — To seek the truth and to spread it
in the various areas of divine and human sciences there have arisen
within the Roman Church various academies, as they are called, among
which is the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Art. 190 — In their constitution and
administration, all these institutions of the Roman Church are governed
by their own laws.

Art. 191 — Of more recent origin, though partly
based on examples of the past, are the Vatican Polyglot Press; the
Vatican Publishing House and its bookstore; the daily, weekly and
monthly newspapers, among which L’Osservatore romano; Vatican
Radio; the Vatican Television Centre. These institutes, according to
their own regulations, come within the competence of the Secretariat of
State or of other agencies of the Roman Curia.

Art. 192 — The Fabric of Saint Peter’s deals,
according to its own regulations, with matters concerning the Basilica
of the Prince of the Apostles, with respect to the preservation and
decoration of the building and behaviour among the employees and
pilgrims who come into the church. Where necessary, the superiors of the
Fabric act in cooperation with the Chapter of the Basilica.

Art. 193 — The Office of Papal Charities
carries on the work of aid of the Supreme Pontiff toward the poor and is
subject directly to him.

We decree the present Apostolic Constitution to be
stable, valid, and effective now and henceforth, that it shall receive
its full and integral effects from the first day of the month of March
of 1989, and that it must in each and everything and in any manner
whatsoever be fully observed by all those to whom it applies or in any
way shall apply, anything to the contrary notwithstanding, even if it is
worthy of most special mention.

Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, in the presence
of the cardinals assembled in consistory, on the vigil of the solemnity
of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, 28 June in the Marian Year 1988,
the tenth of Our pontificate.

That pastoral spirit, prominent in the revision of the
Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, has also led to attaching
greater significance to bishops’ visits ad liminaApostolorum,
bringing a more adequate light to bear on the pastoral importance which
the visits have gained in the present life of the Church.

1. These visits, as we know, take place when the
bishops, joined as they are to the Apostolic See with the bond of
communion and presiding in charity and service over the particular
Churches throughout the world, set out at certain appointed times for
Rome to visit the tombs of the Apostles.

On the one hand, these visits give the bishops an
opportunity to sharpen their awareness of their responsibilities as
successors of the Apostles and to feel more intensely their sense of
hierarchical communion with the successor of Peter. On the other hand,
the visits in some way constitute the highest and most central point in
that universal ministry that the Holy Father is carrying out when he
embraces his brother bishops, the pastors of the particular Churches,
and takes up with them the business of sustaining their mission in the
Church.

2. These ad limina visits bring into full
view this movement or life-blood between the particular Churches and the
Church as a whole that theologians call perichoresis. The process
may be compared to the diastolic-systolic movements within the human
body when the blood is carried to the outer limbs and from there flows
back to the heart.

Some trace and example of a first ad limina
visit is found in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, in which the Apostle
tells the story of his conversion and the journey he undertook among the
pagans. Although he knew that he had been called and instructed
personally by Christ who had conquered death, he wrote these words:
"[Then] did I go up to Jerusalem to meet Cephas. I stayed fifteen
days with him" (Gal 1:18). "It was not until fourteen
years later that I travelled up to Jerusalem again [...] I expounded the
whole gospel that I preach the gentiles, to make quite sure that the
efforts I was making and had already made should not be fruitless"
(Gal 2: 1-2).

3. The natural result of this meeting with
Peter’s successor, first guardian of the deposit of truth passed on by
the Apostles, is to strengthen unity in the same faith, hope and
charity, and more and more to recognize and treasure that immense
heritage of spiritual and moral wealth that the whole Church, joined
with the bishop of Rome by the bond of communion, has spread throughout
the world.

During the ad limina visit, two men stand face
to face together, namely the bishop of a certain particular Church and
the bishop of Rome, who is also the successor of Peter. Both carry on
their shoulders the burden of office, which they cannot relieve
themselves from, but they are not at all divided one from the other, for
both of them in their own way represent, and must represent, the sum
total of the faithful, the whole of the Church, and the sum total of the
bishops, which together constitute the only "we and us" in the
body of Christ. It is in their communion that the faithful under their
care communicate with one another, and likewise the universal Church and
particular Churches communicate with each other.

4. For all these reasons, the ad limina
visits express that pastoral solicitude which thrives in the
universal Church. Here we see the meeting of the pastors of the Church,
joined together in a collegial unity that is based on apostolic
succession. In this College, each and every one of the bishops displays
that solicitude of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, which all have
received by way of inheritance.

This indeed is the highest ideal of the apostolate
that has to be carried out in the Church and which concerns the bishops
together with the successor of Peter. For each one of them stands at the
centre of all the apostolate, in all its forms, that is carried out in
each particular Church, joined at the same time in the universal
dimension of the Church as a whole. All this apostolate, again in all
its forms, demands and includes the work and help of all those who are
building the Body of Christ in the Church, be it universal or
particular: the priests, men and women religious consecrated to God, and
the laypeople.

5. Now if the ad limina visits are
conceived and viewed in this way, they come to be a specific moment
of that communion which so profoundly determines the nature and
essence of the Church, as it was admirably indicated in the Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church, especially in chapters II and III. Given
that society nowadays is moving towards a greater unification, and the
Church experiences herself as "a sign and instrument [...] of
communion with God and of unity among the whole of humankind," it
seems utterly necessary that a permanent communication between
particular Churches and the Apostolic See should be promoted and built
up, especially by sharing pastoral solicitude regarding questions,
experiences, problems, projects and ideas about life and action.

When pastors converge on Rome and meet together, there
comes to pass a remarkable and most beautiful sharing of gifts from
among all those riches in the Church, be they universal or local and
particular, in accordance with that principle of catholicity by which
"each part contributes its own gifts to other parts and to the
whole Church, so that the whole and each of the parts are strengthened
by the common sharing of all things and by the common effort to attain
to fullness in unity."

Furthermore and in the same way, ad limina
visits aim not only at a direct sharing of information but also and
especially to an increase and strengthening of a collegial structure
in the body of the Church, bringing about a remarkable unity in variety.

This communication in the Church is a two-way
movement. On the one hand, the bishops converge towards the centre and
the visible foundation of unity. We are referring to that unity which,
when it comes to full bloom, casts its benefits on their own groupings
or conferences, through each pastor’s responsibilities and awareness
of his functions and of their fulfilment, or through the collegial
spirit of all the pastors. On the other hand, there is the
commission "which the Lord confided to Peter alone, as the first of
the apostles" which serves the ecclesial community and the spread
of her mission, in such a way that nothing is left untried that may lead
to the advancement and preservation of the unity of the faith and the
common discipline of the whole Church, and all become more and more
aware that the responsibility of proclaiming the Gospel everywhere
throughout the world falls chiefly on the body of the pastors.

6. From all the principles established above to
describe this most important process, one may deduce in what way that
apostolic custom of "seeing Peter" is to be understood and put
into practice.

First of all the ad limina visit has a sacred
meaning in that the bishops with religious veneration pay a visit to
the tombs of Peter and Paul, the Princes of the Apostles, shepherds and
pillars of the Church of Rome.

Then the ad limina visit has a personal
meaning because each individual bishop meets the successor of Peter
and talks to him face to face.

Finally, the visit has a curial meaning, that
is, a hallmark of community, because the bishops enter into
conversation with the moderators of the dicasteries, councils, and
offices of the Roman Curia. The Curia, after all, is a certain
"community" that is closely joined with the Roman Pontiff in
that area of the Petrine ministry which involves solicitude for all the
Churches (cf. 2 Cor 11:28).

In the course of the ad limina visit, the
access that the bishops have to the dicasteries is of a two-fold nature:

— First, it gives them access to each individual
agency of the Roman Curia, especially to questions that the agencies are
dealing with directly according to their competence, questions that have
been referred by law to those agencies because of their expertise and
experience.

— Second, bishops coming from all over the world,
where each of the particular Churches can be found, are introduced to
questions of common pastoral solicitude for the universal Church.

Bearing in mind this specific point of view, the
Congregation for Bishops, in consultation with the other interested
Congregations, is preparing a "Directory" for publication so
that the ad limina visits can receive long- and short-term
preparation and thus proceed smoothly.

7. Each and every bishop — by the very nature
of that "ministry" that has been entrusted to him — is
called and invited to visit the "tombs of the Apostles" at
certain appointed times.

However, since the bishops living within each
territory, nation or region, have already gathered together and now form
conferences of bishops — collegial unions with an excellent, broad
theoretical basis — it is highly appropriate that the ad limina
visits should proceed according to this collegial principle, for that
carries much significance within the Church.

The institutes of the Apostolic See, and especially
the nunciatures and apostolic delegations as well as the dicasteries of
the Roman Curia, are most willing to offer assistance in order to ensure
that ad limina visits be made possible, are suitably prepared and
proceed well.

To sum up: the institution of the ad limina
visit is an instrument of the utmost value, commanding respect because
it is an ancient custom and has outstanding pastoral importance. Truly,
these visits express the catholicity of the Church and the unity and
communion of the College of Bishops, qualities rooted in the successor
of Peter and signified by those holy places where the Princes of the
Apostles underwent martyrdom, qualities of a theological, pastoral,
social, and religious import known to all.

This institution therefore is to be favored and
promoted in every possible way, especially at this moment of the history
of salvation in which the teachings and magisterium of the Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council shine out with ever brighter light.

The Collaborators of the Apostolic
See as a Work Community(cf. arts. 33-36)

1. The principal feature characterizing the
revision of the Apostolic Constitution Regimini Ecclesiæ universæ,
so that it might be adapted to the needs that arose after its
promulgation, was certainly to emphasize the pastoral nature of the
Roman Curia. Viewed in this way, the true character of the functions
fulfilled in the midst, as it were, of the Apostolic See shines bright
and clear, so that they provide the Supreme Pontiff with suitable
instruments to carry out the mission entrusted to him by Christ Our
Lord.

Through that unique ministry which he offers to the
Church, the Supreme Pontiff strengthens his brothers in the faith (Lk 22:32)
— the pastors, namely, and the Christian faithful of the universal
Church — looking only to nourish and guard that Church communion in
which "there are also particular Churches that retain their own
traditions, without prejudice to the Chair of Peter which presides over
the whole assembly of charity (cf. S. Ignatius M., Ad Rom.,
pref., Funk, I, p. 252), and protects their legitimate variety and
at the same time keeps watch to ensure that individual differences, so
far from being harmful to unity, actually serve its cause."

2. By constant toil, this Petrine ministry
reaches out to the whole world and claims the help of persons and other
means throughout the Church. Help it does receive in a direct and
privileged manner from all those who are called to perform various
functions in the Roman Curia and in the various institutions which
compose the structure of the Holy See, be they in holy orders as bishops
and priests, or men and women consecrated to God in the religious
families and secular institutes, or Christian lay men and women.

Out of this diversity emerge certain quite remarkable
contours and the considerable importance of these duties, which have
absolutely no equivalent at any other level of civil society, with which
by its very nature indeed the Roman Curia cannot be compared. On this
foundation stands that leading idea of the work community constituted by
all those who, being well nourished with the one and the same faith and
charity and "united, heart and soul" (Acts 4:32),
make up those structures of collaboration just mentioned. Therefore
those who under whatever title and in any manner help in the universal
mission of the Supreme Pontiff to foster the Church community, have a
further call to set up a communion of purpose, of undertakings, and of
rules of behaviour, that deserves the name of community more than
does any other form of grouping.

3. The letter of Pope John Paul II of 20 November
1982 on the meaning of work performed for the Apostolic See, took pains
to elaborate on the characteristics of this work community. The letter
outlined its nature, unique and yet endowed with a variety of functions.
All those who share in the "single, incessant activity of the
Apostolic See," become in some way brothers. From this
consideration the letter went on to conclude that those who shared in
this work should be aware "of that specific character of their
positions. In any case, such a consciousness has ever been the tradition
and pride of those who have chosen to dedicate themselves to that noble
service." The letter adds: "This consideration applies to
clerics and religious and to laity as well; both to those who occupy
posts of high responsibility and to office and manual workers to whom
auxiliary functions are assigned."

The same letter points out the special nature of the
Apostolic See, which, to preserve the exercise of spiritual freedom and
its true and visible immunity, constitutes a sovereign State in its own
right and yet "does not possess all ordinary characteristics of a
political community," different from all others. The practical
results of this condition are seen in the operation of its affairs,
especially as regards its economic organization. In the Apostolic See
there is a total absence of a taxation system that other states have by
right, and it has no economic activity producing goods and income. The
"prime basis of sustenance of the Apostolic See is the spontaneous
offerings" by reason of a certain universal interdependence
emanating from the Catholic family and elsewhere, which to a marvellous
degree expresses that communion of charity over which the Apostolic See
presides in the world and by which it lives.

From this basic condition flow certain consequences on
the practical level and in the behaviour among the staff of the Holy See
— "the spirit of thrift," "a readiness always to take
account of the real but limited financial possibilities of the Holy See
and their source," "a profound trust in Providence." And,
over and beyond all these qualities, "those who work for the Holy
See must therefore have the profound conviction that their work above
all entails an ecclesial responsibility to live in a spirit of authentic
faith, and that the juridical-administrative aspects of their
relationship with the Apostolic See stand in a particular light."

4. The remuneration owed to the clerical and lay
staff at the Holy See, according to their personal conditions of life,
is regulated by the major principles of the social teachings of the
Church, which have been made quite clear by the magisterium of the Popes
from the time of the publication of Leo XIII’s Encyclical Letter Rerum
novarum up to John Paul II’s Encyclicals Laborem exercens
and Sollicitudo rei socialis.

While labouring under a grave lack of economic means,
the Holy See makes every effort to measure up to the heavy obligations
to which it is held with regard to its workers — even granting them
certain benefit packages — but subject to that basic situation which
is peculiar to the Apostolic See and has been explained in the Pope’s
Letter, the fact, namely, that the Holy See cannot be compared to any
other form of State, since it is deprived of the ordinary means of
generating income, except the income that comes from universal charity.
However the Holy See is conscious of the fact — and the same Apostolic
Letter makes this clear — that the active cooperation of everybody,
and especially of the lay members of the staff, is necessary so that
regulations and interrelations may be protected, as well as those rights
and duties that arise out of "social justice" when it is
correctly applied to the relations between worker and employer. On this
subject, the Apostolic Letter has pointed out the help that workers
associations can give in this respect, like the "Associazione
Dipendenti Laici Vaticani," recently founded through productive
talks among the various administrative levels to promote the spirit of
solicitude and justice. The Apostolic Letter however has cautioned us to
beware lest this kind of group distort the leading ideal that must
govern the work community of the See of Peter. The letter says:
"However, a lapse of this type of organization into the field of
extremist conflict and class struggle does not correspond to the
Church’s social teaching. Nor should such associations have a
political character or openly or covertly serve partisan interests or
other interests with quite different goals."

5. At the same time the Supreme Pontiff declared
his firm conviction that associations of this kind — like the one
mentioned above — "set forward work problems and develop
continuous and constructive dialogue with the competent organisms [and]
will not fail to take account in every case of the particular character
of the Apostolic See."

Now since the lay staff of Vatican City had very much
at heart that there be an ever more suitable fine-tuning of working
conditions and of everything touching the labour question, the Supreme
Pontiff provided that "suitable executive documents" be
prepared "for forthering a work community according to the
principles set forth by means of suitable norms and structures."

The outcome of the Pope’s concern is now "The
Labour Office of the Apostolic See" (L.A.A.S.), which is
established by an Apostolic Letter given motu proprio together
with the document specifying in detail the membership of the Labour
Office, its authority, its functions, its regulatory and advisory organs
as well as its proper norms to facilitate a fair, rapid, and efficient
process; furthermore, as it has been just newly set up, this Office
needs a reasonable period of time to operate ad experimentum so
that its regulations and procedures may be confirmed and its true and
objective importance reviewed. This motu proprio and the
regulations of the new Labour Office are being published at the same
time, together with the promulgation of the Apostolic Constitution on
the renewal of the Roman Curia.

6. The chief purpose of the Labour Office —
apart from the practical ends for which it was brought into existence
— is to promote and preserve a work community among the various levels
of staff of the Apostolic See, especially the laypeople. The spirit of
this community should be characteristic of all who have been called to
the privilege and responsibility of serving the Petrine ministry.

Again and again it is to be explained that these
workers are in duty bound to foster and cultivate within themselves a
special awareness of the Church, an awareness making them ever more
fitted to fulfill the functions entrusted to them, no matter what these
may be. These functions are not mere give and take arrangements — a
certain labour given and a certain wage received —, as may happen in
institutions in civil society; they constitute rather a service offered
to Christ himself "who came not to be served but to serve" (Mt
20:28).

Therefore all the workers of the Holy See, clergy and
laity, out of a sense of honour and sincerely conscious of their own
duty before God and themselves, must resolve that their lives as priests
and lay faithful shall be lived at an exemplary level, as is proposed by
God’s commandments, by the laws of the Church and by the
pronouncements of the Second Vatican Council, especially in Lumen
gentium, Presbyterorum ordinis, and Apostolicam
actuositatem. However, this is a free decision, by which with full
awareness certain responsibilities are taken on, the force of which is
felt not only on the individuals but also on their families and even on
the actual work community composed of all the collaborators of the Holy
See.

Well may we be asked "of whose spirit we
are" (cf. Lk 9:55 Vulg.): thus the Pope writes at the
end of the Apostolic Letter. So each and all, in searching their own
sincerity as human beings and as Christians, are bound to be faithful to
those promises, and to keep those bonds that they freely accepted when
they were chosen to labour at the Holy See.

7. To keep in view the principles and norms
indicated by the Pope in the afore-mentioned Apostolic Letter to the
cardinal secretary of state, the full text is printed below. In fact,
this document must be considered as the foundation and sign of the whole
pattern of interdependence in order to maintain full cooperation and
understanding within the work community at the service of the Apostolic
See.

Apostolic Letter Apostolica Sedes
by John Paul II
on the meaning of work performed for the Apostolic See

1. The Apostolic See, in exercising its mission, has
recourse to the valid and precious work of the particular community made
up of those men and women, priests, religious and laity who devote their
efforts in their dicasteries and offices to the service of the universal
Church.

Charges and duties are assigned to the members of this community;
each of those charges and duties has its own purpose and dignity, in
consideration both of the objective content and value of the work done
and of the person who accomplishes it.

This concept of community, applied to those who aid the bishop of
Rome in his ministry as pastor of the universal Church, permits us first
of all to define the unitary character of functions which are
nonetheless diverse among themselves. All persons called to perform them
really participate in the single, incessant activity of the Apostolic
See; that is, in that "concern for all the Churches" (cf. 2 Cor.
11:28) which enlivened the apostles’ service from the earliest times
and is the prerogative today in outstanding measure of the successors of
St. Peter in the Roman See. It is very important that those who are
associated in any way with the Apostolic See’s activity should have a
consciousness of that specific character of their positions. In any
case, such a consciousness has ever been the tradition and pride of
those who have chosen to dedicate themselves to that noble service.

This consideration applies to clerics and religious and to laity as
well, both to those who hold posts of high responsibility, and to office
and manual workers to whom auxiliary functions are assigned. It applies
to persons attached to the service of the same Apostolic See more
directly, inasmuch as they work in those organisms which are altogether
known in fact under the name of "Holy See;" and it applies to
those who are in the service of the Vatican City State, which is so
closely linked with the Apostolic See.

In the recent Encyclical Laborem exercens, I recalled the
principal truths of the "gospel of labour" and Catholic
doctrine on human work, a doctrine always alive in the Church’s
tradition. There is need for the life of that singular community which
operates sub umbra Petri — in Peter’s shadow —, in such
immediate contact with the Apostolic See, to conform itself to these
truths.

2. In order to apply these principles to reality, their objective
significance must be borne in mind, together with the specific nature of
the Apostolic See. This latter does not have the general form of true
states even though, as I noted above, the entity described as the
Vatican City State is closely linked with it; for true states are
subjects of the political sovereignty of particular societies. On the
other hand, the Vatican City State is sovereign, yet does not possess
all ordinary characteristics of a political community. It is an atypical
state. It exists as a fitting means of guaranteeing the exercise of the
spiritual liberty of the Apostolic See; that is, as the means of
assuring real and visible independence of the same in its activity of
government for the sake of the universal Church, as well as of its
pastoral work directed toward the whole human race. It does not possess
a proper society for the service of which it was established nor does it
base itself upon forms of social action which usually determine the
structure and organization of every other state. Furthermore, the
persons who aid the Apostolic See or even cooperate in government of the
Vatican City State are with few exceptions not citizens of this state.
Nor, consequently, do they have the rights and duties (those to do with
taxation in particular) which ordinarily arise from belonging to a
state.

The Apostolic See does not develop nor can it develop economic
activity proper to a state, since it transcends the narrow confines of
the Vatican City State in a much more important respect and extends its
mission to the whole of the earth. Production of economic goods and
enrichment by way of revenues are foreign to its institutional purposes.
Besides the revenues of the Vatican City State and the limited income
afforded by what remains of the funds obtained on the occasion of the
Lateran Pacts as indemnity for the Papal States. and ecclesiastical
goods passed to the Italian State, the prime basis of sustenance of the
Apostolic See is the spontaneous offerings provided by Catholics
throughout the world and by other men of good will. This corresponds to
a tradition having its origin in the Gospel and the teachings of the
apostles. This tradition has taken on various forms over the centuries
in relation to the economic structures prevailing in various eras. In
conformity with that tradition it must be affirmed that the Apostolic
See may and ought to make use of the spontaneous contributions of the
faithful and other people of good will, without having recourse to other
means which might appear to be less respectful of the character proper
to the Apostolic See.

3.The above-mentioned material contributions are the expression of a
constant and moving solidarity with the Apostolic See and the activity
carried out by it. My profound gratitude goes out to such great
solidarity. It ought to be with a sense of responsibility commensurate
with the nature of the contributions on the part of the Apostolic See
itself, its individual organs and the persons working in them. That is
to say that the contributions are to be used solely and always according
to the dispositions and will of those offering them: for the general
intention which is maintenance of the Apostolic See and the generality
of its activities or for particular purposes (missionary, charitable,
etc.), when these have been expressly mentioned.

Responsibility and loyalty toward those who show their solidarity
with the Apostolic See through their aid and share its pastoral concern
in some way are expressed in scrupulous fidelity to all tasks and duties
assigned, as well as in the zeal, hard work and professional spirit
which ought to distinguish whoever participates in the same Apostolic
See’s activities. Right intention must likewise be always cultivated,
so as to exert watchful administration — in terms of their purposes
— over both material goods which are offered and over what is acquired
or conserved by means of such goods. This includes safeguarding and
enhancing the See of Peter’s precious inheritance in the
religious-cultural and artistic fields.

In making use of means allocated for these ends, the Apostolic See
and those directly collaborating with it must be distinguished not only
by a spirit of thrift, but also by readiness always to take account of
the real but limited financial possibilities of the Holy See and their
source. Obviously such interior dispositions of mind ought to be well
assimilated, becoming ingrained in the minds of religious and clerics
through their training. But neither should they be lacking from the
minds of laity who through their free choice accept working for and with
the Apostolic See.

Moreover, all those who have particular responsibilities in running
organisms, offices and services of the Apostolic See, as well as those
employed in various functions, will know how to join this spirit of
thrift with constant application to making the various activities ever
more effective. This can be done through organization of work based, on
the one hand, on full respect for persons and the valid contribution
made by each according to his proper abilities and functions and, on the
other hand, upon use of appropriate structures and technical means, so
that the activity engaged in corresponds more and more to the demands of
service to the universal Church. Recourse shall be had to everything
that experience, science and technology teach; efforts will be made in
this way to use human and financial resources with greater effectiveness
by avoiding waste, self-interest and pursuit of unjustified privileges,
and at the same time by promoting good human relations in every sector
and the true and rightful interests of the Apostolic See.

Along with such commitment should go a profound trust in Providence,
which, through the offerings of good people, will not allow a lack of
the means to pursue the Apostolic See’s proper ends. Should a lack of
means impede accomplishment of some fundamental objective, a special
appeal may be made to the generosity of the people of God, informing
them of needs which are not sufficiently well known. In the normal way,
however, it is fitting to be content with what bishops, priests,
religious institutes and faithful offer spontaneously, since they
themselves can see or discern rightful needs.

4. Many of those working with the Apostolic See are clerics. Since
they live in celibacy, they have no families to their charge. They
deserve remuneration proportional to the tasks performed and capable of
assuring them a decent manner of living and means to carry out the
duties of their state, including responsibilities which they may have in
certain cases toward parents or other family members dependent on them.
Nor should the demands of orderly social relationships be neglected,
particularly and above all their obligation to assist the needy. This
obligation is more impelling for clerics and religious than for the
laity, by reason of their evangelical vocation.

Remuneration of the lay employees of the Apostolic See should also
correspond to the tasks performed, taking into consideration at the same
time their responsibility to support their families. Study should
therefore be devoted, in a spirit of lively concern and justice, to
ascertaining their objective material needs and those of their families,
including needs regarding education of their children and suitable
provision for old age, so as to meet those needs properly. The
fundamental guidelines in this sector are to be found in Catholic
teaching on remuneration for work. Immediate indications for the
evaluation of circumstances can be obtained from examining experiences
and programs of the society — in particular, the Italian society —
to which almost all lay employees of the Apostolic See belong and in
which they at any rate live.

A valid collaborative function may be performed by workers’
associations such as the Association of Vatican Lay Employees, which
recently came into existence, in promoting that spirit of concern and
justice, through representing those working within the Apostolic See.
Such associations take on a specific character within the Apostolic See.
They are an initiative in conformity with the Church’s social
teaching, for the Church sees them as one instrument for better assuring
social justice in relations between worker and employer. However, a
lapse of this type of organization into the field of extremist conflict
and class struggle does not correspond to the Church’s social
teaching. Nor should such associations have a political or openly or
covertly serve partisan interests or other interests with quite
different goals.

I express confidence that associations such as that now existing and
just mentioned will perform a useful function in the work community,
operating in solid harmony with the Apostolic See, by taking inspiration
from the principles of the Church’s social teaching. I am likewise
certain that as they set forward work problems and develop continuous
and constructive dialogue with the competent organisms they will not
fail to take account in every case of the particular character of the
Apostolic See, as pointed out in the initial part of this letter.

In relation to what has been expounded, Your Eminence will wish to
prepare suitable executive documents for furthering a work community
according to the principles set forth by means of suitable norms and
structures.

5. I emphasized in the Encyclical Laboremexercens that
the worker’s personal dignity requires expression in a particular
relationship with the work entrusted to him. This relationship is
objectively realizable in various ways according to the kind of work
undertaken. It is realized subjectively when the worker lives it as
"his own," even though he is working "for wages."
Since the work in question here is performed within the Apostolic See
and is therefore marked by the characteristics already mentioned, such a
relationship calls for heartfelt sharing in that "concern for all
the Churches" which is proper to the Chair of Peter.

Those who work for the Holy See must therefore have the profound
conviction that their work above all entails an ecclesial responsibility
to live in a spirit of authentic faith, and that the
juridical-administrative aspects of their relationship with the
Apostolic See stand in a particular light.

The Second Vatican Council provided us with copious teaching on the
way in which all Christians, clerics, religious and laity can and ought
to make such ecclesial concern their own.

So it seems necessary for all, especially those working with the
Apostolic See, to deepen personal consciousness above all of the
universal apostolic commitment of Christians and that arising from each
one’s specific vocation: that of the bishop, of the priest, of
religious, of the laity. The answers to the present difficulties in the
field of human labor are to be sought in the sphere of social justice.
But they must also be sought in the area of an interior relationship
with the work that each is called upon to perform. It seems evident that
work — of whatever kind — carried out in the employment of the
Apostolic See requires this in a quite special measure.

Besides the deepened interior relationship, this work calls for
reciprocal respect, if it is to be advantageous and serene, based on
human and Christian brotherhood by all and for all concerned. Only when
it is allied with such brotherhood (that is, with love of man in truth),
can justice manifest itself as true justice. We must try to find
"of what spirit we are" (cf. Lk. 9:55, Vulg.).

These latter questions have hardly been touched on here. They cannot
be adequately formulated in administrative-juridical terms. This does
not exempt us, however, from the search and effort necessary for making
operative precisely within the circle of the Apostolic See that spirit
of human work which comes from our Lord Jesus Christ.

As I entrust these thoughts, Most Reverend Cardinal, to your
attentive consideration, I call down an abundance of the gifts of divine
assistance upon the future commitment which putting them into practice
requires. At the same time I impart my benediction to you from my heart
and willingly extend it to all those who offer their meritorious service
to the Apostolic See.

The translation was first completed in 1993. In 1997, it
was revised by Michel Thériault; subsequently, it went under a new
revision by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and the
Secretariat of State. After a final revision by Michel Thériault, the
translation was considered to be faithful to the letter and spirit of
the original text and its publication was authorized by the
Secretariat of State.